A Tale of Two Presidents

India has seen 14 Presidents since its independence in 1947. Unlike the post of Prime Minister, the incumbents to the highest office of the republic has successfully upheld India's deep seated admiration for secularism and equality. The post has been held by luminaries and well regarded individuals beginning from Dr Rajendra Prasad, Dr S Radhakrishnan, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and even Pranab Mukherjee. However, being a de jure position, each incumbent had settled his role and defined his boundaries quite differently as compared to his successors or predecessors. To examine the roles of each President would be a lengthy affair and I do not consider myself worthy to attempt such a daunting task. However something that recently caught my attention is the stark resemblance of an occupant who was once in this office nearly 50 years back and the current occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Since 1950, Raisina Hill was home to fourteen individuals each of who conducted themselves very differently from one another making themselves equally distinct in India's political history.

Varahgiri Venkata Giri served as the fourth President of India. Previously he was the Vice-President when Dr Zakir Hussain was elected to the high office unfortunately passing away two years later. Giri's election to the office of Presidency is one of the most dramatic occurences in India's post-independent history. At that time, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was at loggerheads with the Syndicate- a body comprising of the Congress President S Nijalingappa and the regional bosses who once were the most strongest supporters for her bid to the PMO after Lal Bahadur Shastri's tragic death in 1966. However, after the 1967 elections when Gandhi tried to assert her authority and autonomy in governmental affairs instead of reporting back to the party, this was strongly resisted by the Syndicate. Furthermore the Syndicate's right-wing approach clashed with Indira's socialst values she inherited from her father. Amidst such tense situations, the death of Dr Hussain gave either faction an oppurtunity to test which of them were more dominant than the other. Furthermore having a friendly president would have also incurred advantages in the case of a hung parliament. Whilst the Congress nominated Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, a Syndicate member from Andhra, the Jan Sangh and Swatantra supported CD Deshmukh. What was expected to be a two-pronged contest was drastically changed when VV Giri entered the race as an independent candidate. When Nijalingappa and others met leaders of the Jan Sangh and Swatantra to persuade them to poll their second preference votes in favour of Reddy, Indira seized the opportunity and alleged that  the Syndicate had made peace with communal and reactionary forces and  her choice fell on Giri when  she asked the MPs and MLAs to vote according to their conscience. In a close call Giri won the battle pollimg 50.2% of the vote to Reddy's 48.5%.

Indira Gandhi receiving the Bharat Ratna in 1971 from the man who she elevated to the post of the President using all her political might. Coincidentally in 1975 Giri was awarded the same honour by Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed as a token concession for not renominating him to the position in 1974. 

As he won on Mrs Gandhi's goodwill, it seemed to him that even after occupying the high office, it was necessary to remain indebted to her. Under his tenure, the high stature of the office of the President rapidly eroded with its independence dwindling. He unprotestingly accepted Mrs Gandhi's proposal to remove the Charan Singh Ministry in Uttar Pradesh and promptly promulgated an ordinance to abolish the privy purses and privileges that were granted to the ruler of the former princely states when they acceded to the Union of India after the Government's constitutional amendment bill failed by one vote in the Rajya Sabha. Although he cautioned Indira against the appointment of Justice AN Ray as the Chief Justice of India overlooking three senior judges- JM Sehlat, KS Hedge and AN Grover who by tradition should have been the rightful occupant of the highest judicial office, he ultimately relented and appointed Ray to the post. However he was not renominated by Mrs Gandhi, but was later awarded a Bharat Ratna for his Rubber stamp attitude and unquestioning loyalty.

Perhaps the most number of clashes between Raisina Hill and PMO occured under the tenures of Rajendra Prasad and Jawaharlal Nehru. Both were ideologically disparate and Nehru had preferred Rajagopalachari for the position instead of Prasad. 

The present occupant, Ram Nath Kovind is following the same lines as his predecessor. Although his election evaded the drama that Giri's had faced, his opponent Meira Kumar recorded the second highest vote share for a losing candidate in the 2017 Presidential Elections. His unwavering loyalty to the government was displayed numerous times: from the revocation of Article 370 in August 2019 within two days of issuing a gazetted notice leaving MPs totally unprepared to deliberate the situation in Parliament to the three Farm Laws passed in  September 2020. He was conspicuously silent on the anti-CAA protests and even when the Farmers' protests were carrying on in full swing at the borders of the capital, he appreciated them simply quoting the government's versions of how the bills' implementation would increase farmer's incomes. He didn't object to ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi's nomination to the Rajya Sabha and will also remain silent if the speculations of former Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora's possible appointment as the Governor of Goa emerge to be true not caring how damaging it would be for the reputation of such sacrosanct constitutional institutions. He has hardly reacted to the huge death toll caused due to the corona virus pandemic that has increased manifold owing to the failure of infrastructure across hospitals whether they are run by the Centre or the states but had devotedly come out to bang steel plates and to observes a second Diwali in summer. He did not call out the Government when it was the Prime Minister who performed the Bhoomi Poojan at the Foundation Ceremony of the New Parliament, not considering the fact that owing to his position it should have been who should have performed the ceremony. Bills are signed into laws within a week or two without any sort of a hesitation or objection as seen from the recently passed NCT Bill 2021. 

Both Giri and Kovind suffer from a similar predicament of having headstrong Prime Ministers under their Presidencies. That and their own approaches to the establishment had moulded the manner in which they conducted their actions. 

It is wrong to say that a President should be rubber-stamp figurehead. Although our Constitution mandates that the President has to eventually submit to the views of the Legislature and ultimately the Cabinet, however occupying the highest office of the land demands a moral empathy and not unwavering loyalty to the elected heads. We have had Presidents in the past who were bold enough to resist encroachments by the De Facto Political executive to the dignity of the office. This included President Rajendra Prasad who firmly disagreed with Nehru and his decision to pass the First Amendment Act of 1951 before the first General Elections are conducted. He also opposed the Nehru Government's stance on the Hindu Code Bill and threatened to take the matter to court postponing the passing of the bill until 1955. In 1962, President  Radhakrishnan ensured the resignation of VK Krishna Menon after India's defeat in the Sino-Indian War much to Nehru's irritation. In 1987, Giani Zail Singh returned the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill for reconsideration. KR Narayan was another figure who refused to fall in line with the IK Gujral government to impose President's Rule in UP and later subtly avoided Atal Bihari Vajpayee's ardent desire to confer Veer Savarkar the Bharat Ratna. He showed immense courage in meeting those who lost their dear and near ones in the 2002 Gujarat riots when Vajpayee shunned them away possibly due to political pressures. In most recent times there was President Kalam when he refused to budge to the pressure of the UPA-1 government and its leftist allies to pass the Office of Profit Bill initially. The stands taken by the respective Presidents might be a matter of another debate but the fact that they took a stance opposite to the ruling dispensation affirms the fact that Raisina Hill is not merely another bureaucratic office but an essential body in Indian polity which strengthens the nation's democratic spirit encouraging Freedom of Speech and Expression proving that it maybe constitutionally limited but not certainly prohibited.

Giani Zail Singh (top left), KR Narayanan (bottom left) and APJ Abdul Kalam were three President's under whose terms of office there were skirmishes between the De Jure Executive and the De Facto Executive.

Whilst describing the office of the President, Dr Ambedkar states, "He is the Head of the Nation not the executive. He represents the nation but does not rule it." This prominently defines the role a President ought to play when incumbent in that position. By submitting to the Executive, he becomes another subordinate of the government that falls short of the dignity associated with the Head of the State.