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Why is India's next president so unknown?
Why is India's next president so unknown?
BBC NEWS From the section India
July 20, 2017
Ram Nath Kovind, former governor of the northern Indian state of Bihar, has been elected as the country's new president. BBC Hindi's Vineet Khare profiles a man many Indians have never heard of.
"I have been writing about the Dalits [formerly untouchables] for 27 years. But I first heard of Ram Nath Kovind the day he was nominated for India's next president." Dalit writer-activist Chandrabhan Prasad is not alone in claiming that he does not know about the man who has just been elected to the top constitutional post.
His nomination by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) caused so much surprise that a local media report quipped that it "seems only two people knew about his candidature. PM Narendra Modi and God". It added that his name had been entered more than 500,000 times on Google within 24 hours of the announcement of his candidacy.
When BJP president Amit Shah declared that Mr Kovind would be the party's nominee, he described him as a Dalit who had "struggled his way up to such a high position in his political career".
The Dalits sit at the bottom of the Hindu caste system in India and complaints of discrimination are still widespread. Many in fact, accuse the BJP of perpetuating the Brahmin-led caste order where Dalits figure at the bottom, and say Mr Kovind's nomination comes at a time when the party is being accused of being insensitive towards the community.
The five-year job is largely ceremonial but could be crucial when elections throw up fragmented mandates. However, many prominent Dalits say they are unaware what contributions, if any, the new first citizen has made on behalf of the community.
"I go to seminars on Dalits. I write opinion pieces. I appear on TV debates. My job is to work around the subject. But I don't know anything about him," said Mr Prasad.
"I have never heard him take a stand on Dalit issues. It could be my ignorance.
"He seems to be an educated, conscientious person but I have never heard him comment on the atrocities against the Dalits," complained another Dalit writer, who preferred anonymity.
"The move to install a Dalit to the ornamental post is symbolic. Did the appointment of [India's first Dalit president] KR Narayanan help the community in any way? If the ideology of the party is not supportive of the Dalit cause, it doesn't make much difference," he said.
"The party has gone for a man who is not towering, is media shy and whose political and ideological orientation is in sync with Mr Modi," senior journalist Siddharth Varadarajan told the BBC.
Mr Kovind's long-time neighbor Jageshwar, a Dalit in the northern city of Kanpur, claims he cannot recall if Mr Kovind, "son of a cloth-seller, ever campaigned for a Dalit cause".
Kanpur journalist Ramesh Verma agrees the new president has kept a low profile. "He stayed away from the media as he didn't want to be controversial," Mr Verma told the BBC. "I never saw him attend Dalit programs. In fact, he never projected himself as a Dalit leader."
Easygoing man
So what is known about Mr Kovind?
A handful of YouTube videos of his speeches show that he is fluent in both Hindi and English.
The activists who spoke to the BBC agree that he is a soft-spoken man who "prefers to stay away from controversies"
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40344572
