Presidential polls: How PM Modi walks the talk on women empowerment by supporting Droupadi Murmu
Presidential polls: How PM Modi walks the talk on women empowerment by supporting Droupadi Murmu
On 8 July 2022, at the first-ever Arun Jaitley Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address said: “India has achieved growth through inclusivity and furthered inclusivity through growth.” Prime Minister Modi also spoke about how in the last eight years, India has reformed not by compulsion, but by conviction. Reforms are never about economic policies alone but involve reforming the mindset too and that is easier said than done. But when the person involved is Narendra Modi, nothing is difficult, no matter how tough it may seem — and by endorsing Droupadi Murmu's candidature for the post of president, Prime Minister Modi has walked the talk on inclusivity.
If elected on 18 July 2022, Droupadi Murmu will be the first tribal President of India and only the second woman to hold the highest constitutional office of the land. Murmu was born in the Baldaposi village in the Kusumi block of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj, a district which has a 58 per cent tribal population, the highest in Odisha. Her father, Biranchi Narayan Tudu was a farmer in the village. She completed her graduation from the Ramadevi Women’s University in Bhubaneswar (Odisha), with a Bachelor of Arts degree and in 1979, began work as a junior assistant in the state’s irrigation and power department.
Post her marriage to Shyam Charan Murmu, a bank officer, Murmu quit the government job after four years, in 1983, to look after her three children, two sons and a daughter. She also worked as a teacher at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education Centre at Rairangpur from 1994 till 1997, before venturing into politics. In fact, it was during her stint in Rairangpur that she got interested in politics and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 1997, she was elected to the Rairangpur Corporation and became the Vice Chairperson of the civic body.
In 2000, when the BJP-BJD coalition contested together, Murmu won her first Assembly election and thereafter became minister, holding portfolios like transport and commerce and then fisheries and animal husbandry. Before she became an MLA, Murmu also served as a Councillor in the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat. She also served in various roles as the Vice-President of the BJP’s Scheduled Tribes’ Morcha and the district president of BJP, for Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, between 2002 and 2009. Undeniably, Murmu comes with widely rich and varied administrative experience.
In 2004, she became a MLA again, this time by a margin of 63 votes. In 2007, she was awarded the “Nilakantha Award” after being adjudged the best MLA in the Odisha Assembly for the year 2007.
When the alliance between the BJP and the BJD ended, Murmu, despite a Naveen Patnaik wave in 2009, managed to retain her Rairangpur seat. In 2015, Murmu was appointed as the first ever woman Governor of Jharkhand. In 2016, Murmu decided to donate her eyes upon her death, to the Kashyap Memorial Eye Hospital, at Ranchi.
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In her personal life, Murmu had seen much tragedy, having lost her husband Shyam Charan Murmu in 2014 and her two sons in 2009 and 2013, respectively. A lesser woman would have perhaps given up, but Murmu’s personal tragedies only made her tougher for the challenges that lay ahead and to her credit she overcame every challenge that came her way, with equal aplomb, drawing strength from her close association with the Prajapita Brahmakumaris. Murmu created a record of being the first Governor to complete a full term in the state and then served an extra year before exiting the office of Governor of Jharkhand, in 2021.
Murmu’s term as the 8th Governor of Jharkhand coincided partially with that of Raghubar Das who served as the 6th chief minister of Jharkhand for five years, starting from 2014 onward. The BJP-led Raghubar Das government brought in two Bills to amend the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act, 1908 and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, 1949. These amendments related to allowing conversion of land use in tribal areas from agriculture to commercial purposes and set off a major uproar among tribal groups and civil society. These amendments were the antithesis of all the gains made by India’s tribals in terms of their land rights.
Murmu as Governor, someone constitutionally empowered to intervene in issues related to scheduled areas, intervened and rejected the two Bills when they were presented to her, an act which won her many laurels from her community and even otherwise. By rejecting these Bills, Murmu had shown that she had the courage to stand by her people against all odds and she also had the conviction to use her constitutional status for the betterment of those marginalised tribals, who needed her support the most. Jharkhand has 28 out of 81 Assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes and in that sense, is one of the most important states for tribals, politically.
When the government changed in Jharkhand in 2019, Hemant Soren and Droupadi Murmu managed a good working relationship. Ironically, Soren is part of the Opposition camp now, which has announced former Yashwant Sinha, as its presidential candidate. The distance travelled by Murmu, from Rairangpur to the Raisina Hills, which is now at arm’s length, is the story of a woman who battled every odd to aspire for the top most job in this country and amidst all this, let us not forget that the man who made this possible is none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Murmu’s candidature obviously has Prime Minister Modi’s stamp of approval. With 11 women ministers in his cabinet, Modi has walked the talk when it comes to women empowerment, like no other predecessor before him.
Droupadi Murmu belongs to the Santhal tribe. Santhals, also known as Manjhis, are an ethnic group largely concentrated in the states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar and West Bengal. According to Britannica, there are over five million Santhals in India alone.
Murmu was first considered a contender five years ago in 2017, but eventually the top job went to Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit. It needs to be mentioned here that while Parties like the Congress never went beyond lip service to the cause of Dalits, Prime Minister Modi, by first putting his weight behind Kovind and now Droupadi Murmu, has sent out a loud and clear message — New India will be inclusive and will not discriminate against Dalits or Tribals, who were oppressed for decades under successive Congress regimes. Who can forget the humiliation heaped in 1952 and 1954 on Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar, with the Congress (Nehru) repeatedly stonewalling his attempts to enter the Lok Sabha. Who can forget the fact that while Nehru and Indira Gandhi awarded themselves by awarding themselves with India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar was given this honour much later in 1990, a good 34 years after his death! Who can forget how the Congress has completely obliterated the legacy of another Dalit leader, Babu Jagjivan Ram, India’s former Defence Minister.
Droupadi Murmu is expected to win as president, with the NDA commanding 48 per cent of the electoral vote, which will give a big boost to the BJP’s tribal push. The Modi government is clearly one that seeks to uplift the poor, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Dalits and Backward Classes. During the Congress regime, only Rs 21,000 crore was provided for the welfare of (tribal) people, but after Prime Minister Modi came to power in 2014, funds for tribal upliftment were enhanced to a whopping Rs 78,000 crore.
Among various tribal-centric initiatives, some BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh hosted the “Van Samiti Sammelan” in April 2022, a programme where bonus is distributed to collectors of forest produce such as tendu leaves (used to wrap bidis, an Indian version of cigarette) and forest societies. On one such occasion, Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, also unveiled a plaque announcing the change of status of 827 ‘forest villages’ in Madhya Pradesh, into ‘revenue villages’. There was a demand that these areas be declared revenue villages to ensure their development, as there are restrictions on undertaking projects in forest areas.
Today forest dwellers in Madhya Pradesh are becoming, in many ways, owners of forests and their produce and this has been made possible only due to the foresight and vision of Prime Minister Modi, who has spent a painstaking amount of time to encourage states to proactively implement numerous schemes for tribal welfare.
Prime Minister Modi’s endorsement of Murmu is in fact, a vindication of the PM’s tribal outreach and his commitment to giving greater representation to women, especially those from erstwhile, neglected and remote parts of the country. Who could have guessed that a Santhal, tribal woman from Mayurbhanj in Odisha, would be Modi’s choice for president? Modi’s endorsement of Murmu has found him generous appreciation from almost all quarters.
Coming back to Murmu, if elected, she will have many firsts to her credit: She would be the first tribal President of India and the first female leader from the East to hold the highest office. She will also be the first President of India to be born after Independence. She will be only the second female President of India after Pratibha Devisingh Patil. Suffice to say that Murmu is no pushover but a seasoned grassroots politician, with impeccable credentials.
The author is an economist, national spokesperson of the BJP and the bestselling author of ‘The Modi Gambit’. Views expressed are personal.
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