A history has been created in India when the first tribal women was elected for the highest constitutional head on 25th July 2022. The contest between Draupadi Murmu of the Ruling Alliance and Yashwant Sinha of Opposition parties for the highest post of President of India was final. The arithmetic of the electoral college had already confirmed that the contest would be one-sided and it was just a formality. It would have been better if all the political parties had a consensus on a common candidate for the constitutional post.
Presently, government as well as society are working for the empowerment and equality of women through many ambitious programmes. The women serving at various positions are role model for girls, who are dreaming of a prosperous future. The elevation of Draupadi Murmu to the top post of the country, having second largest population in the world, has proved to be catalyst for social change. Undoubtedly, her election as President has been a milestone in the Indian history.
Draupadi Murmu has travelled her political career from zero to hero. Her family, belonging to the Santhal tribal, struggled with poverty. Born on 20th June, 1958 in the remotest Baidaposi village of Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, Draupadi completed her graduation from Ramadevi Women’s College, Bhubaneshwar. She started her social life as an honorary assistant professor at Sri Aurobindo Integral Education & Research Centre, Rairangpur. Then she served as a junior assistant in Irrigation and Power department in Odisha Government since 1979 to 1983.
Draupadi started her political journey in 1997 as a councilor and vice-chairman of Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat. In the same year she was appointed as the Vice-President of Odisha BJP Schedule Tribes Morcha. She was elected MLA from Rairangpur Assembly Constituency in 2000 and served as State Minister in Commerce & Transport department and subsequently Fisheries & Animal Resource in BJD-BJP coalition government under the Chief Ministership of Naveen Patnaik. She was again elected from the same constituency in 2004. For her outstanding contribution, she was honoured the Neelkantha Award for being best MLA by the Odisha Vidhan Sabha in the year 2007. She contested from Rairangpur Assembly Constituency in 2009 and 2014 and from Mayurganj Lok Sabha Constituency in 2014, but could not succeed. In 2015, she was sworn in as the first women governor of Jharkhand and completed her full term. As a governor she proved herself as a compassionate and balanced administrator who was accessible for the cause of the downtrodden and marginalised community.
Draupadi Murmu is not a very high profile personality. She rose through the political ranks battling negligence, poverty and personnel tragedies. She faced many ups and downs in her personal life and lost her husband and both sons in a tragedy; but having great zeal to serve the nation and the society, she did not stop her marching step. She is believed to be deeply spiritual and a keen practitioner of meditation techniques of Brahma Kumaris.
In fact, Draupadi’s name was also doing the rounds for the BJP’s likely choice for the topmost post in year 2017; but then Ram Nath Kovind, the Governor of Bihar, was finally chosen. There may be several political and other factors regarding her selection by the BJP for the top post, but for the people she represents the Nari Shakti to prop up the message “Yatra Naryastu Pujayante, Ramante Tatra Devta.” Draupadi Murmu has become a role model for various reasons not only for the public but political parties having different ideologies too. Not only did she get support from the NDA, but several opposition parties extend their unconditional support to her candidature despite their political differences. Not only neutral regional parties like BJD, YRSCP, AIADMK, but also BJP’s staunch opponents like JMM, SBSP, BSP, Akali Dal, JDS, TDP and many others line up in her favour. Even some Congress, NCP and other party’s MLAs did not hesitate to cross vote in support of Murmu. She won a landslide victory securing 2824 first preference votes with a value of 676803 (64.03%) over UPA candidate Yashwant Sinha who managed to secure just 1877 first preference votes with a value of 380177 (35.97%).
Our Country welcomed its 15th President of the world’s largest democracy on 25th July 2022, when she was administered the oath of the highest office. For the first time, a Moolwasi Santhal women of the country occupied Rashtrapati Bhawan at Raisina Hills, which epitomises India’s strength, its democratic traditions and nationalist character.
(Author is a technocrat and educationist)
