Mishra - Ram Nath Kovind : Journey of India’s 14th President

RAM NATH KOVIND

RAM NATH KOVIND

Journey of the Man Who Would be Indias 14th President

ABHINANDAN MISHRA

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Copyright Abhinandan Mishra 2017

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ISBN: 978-81-XXX-XXXX-X

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Ram Nath Kovind:

Journey of the Man Who Would be Indias 14th President

T he story of Ram Nath Kovind, who, in all likelihood will be the next President of India, is like that of many of the crores of Indians who toil and struggle endlessly and with a little bit of fortune, move up the social and economic ladder to reach a position where they are either written about or talked about as an example of how India is a place where even the weakest gets the opportunity to occupy the highest office of the country.

Born on 1 October 1945 in a remote village of Paraukh of Kanpur Dehat district of Uttar Pradesh, 180 km from Lucknow, when India was on the cusp of getting Independence, Ram Nath, was the youngest of five sons and two sisters. His father, Maikulal, was a landless Koli (a Dalit community) who ran a small grocery shop that gave him just enough income to feed the family of nine members.

Ram Nath lost his mother in a terrible tragedy when he was only five years old after their modest thatched hut caught fire. His mother who was inside the hut, could not escape the fire and died from the burn injuries.

However, determined to educate himself, the young Kovind did not let the tragedy affect him and he enrolled himself in a primary school in the village and after completing his education from one of the most backward part of the country, he would walk 12 kms daily since the nearest high school was in the Khanpur village, which was a long 6 km walk on a kuchha road.

This was the time of early 70s when India was still waking up to the new-found Independence and influenced by the leaders who were leading India at that time, most of them who had a legal background, Kovind too decided to enrol himself in B.A. LLB Hons., which he successfully passed from the University of Kanpur after which he started practising in the court and also started preparing for the Civil Services.

However, when he could not get the ranking that would have got him into the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Kovind took up the legal practice with complete dedication and within years of enrolling himself as an advocate, he was made the counsel of the central government in the Delhi High Court in 1977. He also became an advocate on record of the Supreme Court in 1978 after which he was appointed as the Central Government Standing Counsel in the Supreme Court in 1980, a position in which he continued till 1993. He continued to practise in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court for sixteen years, from 1977 to 1993.

He would, many times, work pro bono for people who did not have the resources to pay his fees and that is what, initially, generated a lot of goodwill for him amongst the common people, especially the people from his village and the surrounding areas of Kanpur.

Kovinds first tryst with politics happened when he was asked by the BJP to contest the 1991 Lok Sabha polls from Ghatampur (SC) Lok Sabha seat, which he lost but got close to 96,000 votes.

It was during this time that the BJP, with whom he has been closely attached due to his links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), offered him a seat in the upper house of the parliament (Rajya Sabha) in April 1994. The BJP chose him again in 2000 for a second term, which he completed in 2006.

He has never asked for anything from the party or the organization. Whatever he was asked to do, he would do it, no question asked. That is what the RSS sees and values. Service without expecting any reward. There are very few people as humble as him and that is one of his trait, that anyone who knows him, will confirm. When he was the party spokersperson, he had an excellent relation with the media because of his nature and even when he became a big man he did not forget the condition and circumstances from which he had come from. He would always be ready to help the needy and the poor, irrespective of their castes. He has done a lot of social work in Varanasi and Kanpur and has stayed away from minting money like other MPs. Even if you search, you will not find a single person who will say anything negative about Kovind, not here, not in Varanasi, not in Delhi or Patna, a Kanpur-based journalist of a Hindi daily said.

People close to him say that even though Kovind became a parliamentarian and then a governor, he never lost touch with his humble background and is remembered by the people of Uttar Pradesh, from where he started his political journey, for his emphasis on spreading education.

As a Rajya Sabha MP, Kovind spent all of his funds on the development of basic infrastructure for education in rural areas by helping in construction of school buildings in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand under the MPLAD Scheme so that no other child, like him, would have to walk long distance to get higher education.

People close to him recall an incident of November 2001, when Kovind visited Paraukh. The residents of this tiny village, to show their gratitude to their son of soil for remembering them even after becoming the MP, presented him with twelve mukuts (ceremonial crowns) that were made of silver and gold.

However, Kovind, while politely rejecting the souvenirs, asked the villagers to save the money and the mukuts to fund the marriage of poor girls from the village. Before leaving his village, Kovind inaugurated a building for the villagers which they could use for community functions.

Not many are aware, but the land on which the building was built belonged to Kovinds father where their ancestral home stood once.

Now, Paraukh is totally changed because of Kovind who has constructed a pukka road to the village that connects it to the nearest state highway, a branch of State Bank of India too was opened, power tube wells were installed and an inter college was opened.

A vegetarian, Kovind is known for his soft-spoken style and maintaining distance from the limelight. He is also a very religious person who knows the Ramayana, the ancient Hindu scripture, by heart. He has drawn this trait from his father who would feed the Brahmins in the village and would ask his seven children to chant the name of Ram daily. Apart from running a grocery shop, he also learnt the use of herbs to treat minor ailments and would help the villagers when they would fall ill.

He is a very humble man and never forgets his old friends. When he became a Rajya Sabha MP and then the governor of Bihar, he made it a point to call up his old friends and extend them an invitation to come to his place whenever they are in Delhi or Patna. He is also not hesitant of publicly accepting the friends who helped him in his professional or personal life. He does not forget when someone has helped him, a RSS functionary, who has known Kovind for ten years, said.