Ram Nath Kovind
Ram Nath Kovind (born 1 October 1945) is the 14th and current President
of India, in office since 25 July 2017. Previously he had served as the Governor
of Bihar from 2015 to 2017 and was a Member of
Parliament, Rajya Sabha from 1994 to 2006. Kovind was nominated as a
presidential candidate by the ruling NDA coalition and won the 2017
presidential election, becoming the second Dalit to be elected
to the post of President.
Before
entering politics, he was a lawyer for 16 years and practiced in the Delhi
High Court and the Supreme Court until 1993.
Kovind was born on 1st October, 1945 in
Paraukh village in the Kanpur Dehat district, Uttar Pradesh. His
father Maikulal was a landless Kori (a Dalit weaving
community) who ran a small shop to support his family. He was the youngest of
five brothers and two sisters. He was born in a mud hut, which eventually
collapsed. He was only five when his mother died of burns when their thatched
dwelling caught fire. Kovind later donated the land to the community.
After his elementary school education, he had to walk
each day to Kanpur village, 8 km away, to attend junior school, as nobody
in the village had a bicycle.[9] He
holds a bachelor's degree in commerce and a LLB from DAV College (affiliated
with Kanpur University)
After graduating in law from DAV
College, Kanpur, Kovind went to Delhi to prepare for the civil
services examination. He passed this exam on his third attempt, but he did not
join because he was only scored high enough to work in an allied service rather
than of IAS and thus started practicing law.
Kovind enrolled as an advocate in 1971 with the bar
council of Delhi. He was Central Government Advocate in the Delhi High Court
from year 1977 to year 1979. Between 1977 & 1978, he also served as the
personal assistant of Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai.[13] In 1978, he
became an advocate-on-record of the Supreme Court of Indiaand served as a
standing counsel for the Central Government in the Supreme Court of India from
1980 to 1993. He practiced in the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court
until 1993. As an advocate, he provided pro-bono aid to weaker
sections of society, women and the poor under the Free Legal Aid Society of New
Delhi.
He joined the BJP in 1991. He
was President of the BJP Dalit Morcha between 1998 and 2002 and
President of the All-India Koli Samaj. He also served as national spokesperson
of the party. He donated his ancestral home in Derapur to the RSS. Soon
after joining the BJP, he contested for Ghatampur assembly
constituency, but lost and later contested for Bhognipur (in 2007)
(both in Uttar Pradesh) assembly constituency on the BJP ticket but lost
again.
In 1997, Kovind joined the protest against certain orders
from the Central government that had adverse effects on the SC/ST workers.
Later, three amendments were made to the Constitution that revoked
the orders, by the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
He was
elected and became a Rajya Sabha MP from the state of Uttar
Pradesh in April 1994. He served a total of twelve years, two consecutive
terms, until March 2006. As a member of parliament, he served on the
Parliamentary Committee for Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Home Affairs,
Petroleum and Natural Gas, Social Justice and Empowerment, Law and Justice. He
also served as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha House Committee. During his
career as a parliamentarian, under the Members of Parliament Local
Area Development Scheme, he focused on education in rural areas by helping in
construction of school buildings in Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand. As a member
of parliament, he visited Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Germany,
Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom and the United States on study tours.
On 8
August 2015, the then President of India appointed Kovind as Governor
of Bihar. On 16 August 2015, the acting Chief Justice of Patna High
Court, Iqbal Ahmad Ansari, administered the oath to Kovind as the 35th Governor
of Bihar. The function took place at Raj Bhawan, Patna.
Ram
Nath Kovind took the oath as the 14th President of India on 25 July 2017
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