India has a new President. Ram Nath Kovind was sworn in to the topmost post on July 25, replacing Pranab Mukherjee, who held the position for five years. The contrast in the views of the outgoing President and the new was underlined in their speeches. While Mukherjee spoke on pluralism and tolerance, Kovind stressed on economic growth. Both, however, stressed on unity.
In his farewell address to the nation on July 24, Mukherjee advocated freeing public discourse from violence – physical as well as verbal – and went on to assert that the country has derived its strength from tolerance. Pointedly, Mukherjee said, “We may argue, we may agree or we may not agree. But we cannot deny the essential prevalence of multiplicity of opinion.”
Mukherjee, who demitted office on Tuesday, stressed that only a society that is non-violent could ensure the participation of all sections of the people, especially the maginalised and the dispossessed, in the democratic process. The former President’s views coming on his last full day as President, expresses his concerns at the violence and the lynching, without actually saying so, that has spread in the country and the growing intolerance that it is witnessing, when he said, ‘everyday, we see increased violence around us. At the heart of this violence is darkness, fear and mistrust’.
Mukherjee also had a word of caution for the Opposition and the disruptions to Parliamentary proceedings, which he said hurts the opposition more as they fail to discharge their duty of highlighting the people’s concerns.
Kovind, in his address after taking oath of office as President, said the India of his dreams, is a country that will provide equality of opportunities and stressed on growth, on building an India that is an economic leader as well as a moral exemplar. Referring to Mahatma Gandhi and other leaders he said, “These leaders did not believe that simply political freedom was enough. For them, it was crucial to also achieve economic and social freedom for millions of our people.” He went back into history to say, “We must combine tradition and technology, the wisdom of an age-old Bharat and the science of a contemporary India.”
He also spoke on the diversity in the country and the mix of states and regions, religions, languages, cultures, lifestyles and much more, despite which the country remains united, and called for nation building where the government, he said can at best be a ‘facilitator, and a trigger for society’s innate entrepreneurial and creative instincts’. He stressed also on the need to do better and do faster as India approaches the 75th year of its Independence.
The former President and the current President may have some contrasting views, but are united in seeing an India that grows economically and socially, and in upholding the Indian Constitution.
As Mukherjee winds up his long political career that saw him as Finance, Foreign, Commerce and Defence Minister, before assuming the Presidency, he leaves behind a rich legacy not just in the political arena, but also in the form of his writings and his patronage to the arts. Another volume of his speeches was released this week, but more importantly, it was he who started the In-Residence Programme that opened Rashtrapati Bhavan to innovation scholars, writers and artists to stay at the President’s Home and is testimony to his openness to embrace all forms of art.
Mukherjee, a politician most of his life and aligned with the Congress, conducted himself with dignity and impartiality during his time in Rashtrapati Bhavan, setting aside his political affiliations. As Kovind takes over from him, the new president too must follow in the same vein, as India leaps forward economically but with tolerance and unity.
