How Ram Nath Kovind was Amit Shah's best kept secret until the last moment
PM Modi's surprise choice is a man for all reasons. The Opposition is left in disarray.
Sixty kilometres from Kanpur Dehat district, the road winds its way through a thick canopy of trees. Once the lair of dreaded dacoits, it now leads to a sleepy little village of ten thousand souls, Paraunkh. On June 19, the villagers there gathered under the shade of an ancient pipal tree, to celebrate the stardom of one of their own: Ram Nath Kovind. They clapped, danced, pounded dholaks and harmoniums, and sang songs of joy: "Mere gaon main khushiyan chhayi, hum dete hain Modiji ko badhai (Happiness has come home, thank you Prime Minister Narendra Modi)."
On July 26, the first president from the saffron brigade will step into the country's most elite address, Rashtrapati Bhavan. For the first time in history-with a Lok Sabha majority, sweeping victories in key assembly elections and a little help from allies-the NDA will have the numbers to get a president it wants. For the last two months, the nation has raised a storm of words and scuttlebutt: who will be the next president of India? With NDA nominating Ram Nath Kovind as its choice on June 19, the answer at last is blowing in the wind.
KOVIND, WHO?
The surprise is total. Who is Ram Nath Kovind? Even West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, never at a loss for words, tossed her head and announced: "Ami chini na (I don't know him)." Social media has exploded. Hashtag #RamnathKovind is still trending days after the announcement. BJP ministers are tweeting about what a "genial, soft-spoken, well-read & articulate" man the governor of Bihar is, what a "perfect gentleman". Leaders in the Opposition, jolted out of their equilibrium, are swinging between "commitment of support", "contest is on the cards" and a meeting on June 22, at 4.30 pm, in the Parliament Library, to take a final call.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally came to the rescue. Through a series of Twitter posts, he explained who Kovind is and why he would "make an exceptional President": "Shri Ram Nath Kovind, a farmer's son, comes from a humble background. He devoted his life to public service & worked for poor & marginalised." A minute later, another: "With his illustrious background in the legal arena, Shri Kovind's knowledge and understanding of the Constitution will benefit the nation." Soon, yet another tweet came on its heels: "I am sure Shri Ram Nath Kovind will make an exceptional President & continue to be a strong voice for the poor, downtrodden & marginalised."
SECRET MISSION
PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah apparently zeroed in on Kovind around the first week of June. But it was a secret wrapped in silence, according to BJP insiders. Kovind has confided to one of his confidantes in Uttarakhand that he himself was not aware of his candidature till June 17. It was such a well-guarded secret that when a source close to Shah asked him on May 30 whether Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot was to be the NDA candidate, he was told: "Someone like him." Most ministers of the Modi cabinet remained in the dark. One of the first to get a whiff, around June 11, was Union minister Nitin Gadkari. That, too, because Shah had asked for some inputs from him.
It's Shah who first spotted Kovind during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The party needed someone like him-a Kori Dalit, a caste group that forms the biggest Dalit grouping in Uttar Pradesh after Jatavs and Passis-to tackle Mayawati, to cobble together a non-Jatav Dalit alliance in UP after the BJP's shock defeat in the 2012 assembly polls. Although he was then the BJP's Dalit Morcha national president, he accepted the state-level post of BJP general secretary in UP without demur. It happened again, when Kovind wanted to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and Shah directed him to tackle the Dalit challenge. Kovind again accepted the decision gracefully. His regard for party discipline and the decisions of senior leaders, apparently, endeared him to Shah.
Those who picked up the clues may remember the PM's speeches at the peak of the Bihar assembly election campaign in 2015. "Shriman Ram Nath Kovindji has given his all to the welfare of the oppressed, the dispossessed, the Dalit, the backward and the extremely backward, all his life?." When PM Modi spoke in exalted terms of the newly-appointed state governor, on August 18, 2015, in Saharsa, nobody thought much of it. Two years later, Kovind is running for the top post of the country, with the firm support of his patron, the Prime Minister of India. "His contribution to the RSS ideology, his stature as a leader, his thorough knowledge of the Constitution and command over the English language impressed the PM and clinched it in his favour," says a BJP member.
A DALIT, FIRST
It's not easy being a Dalit in a village dominated by Brahmins and Thakurs. A weaver by caste, Kovind's family did not own any land. Father Maikulal Kori eked out a living for his family with nine children by running a small grocery store. The children learnt their first lessons under the old pipal tree. "Ram Nath was very sharp, learnt things in no time and never forgot," says his old classmate Rajkishor Singh. High school meant an eight-kilometre walk everyday to another village. Ram Nath left for Kanpur to pursue higher studies and law. In 1970, he left for Delhi to practise as an advocate. By the late 1970s, he had become the personal assistant to former prime minister Morarji Desai. In 1991, he joined the BJP, and by 1994 he had become a Rajya Sabha MP.
It's then that he developed his village into a 'model village', using MP funds: roads were paved, a high school was opened for girls, so was a State Bank of India branch, and every house was set up with electricity meters. Ask anyone and they will show you the way to the family stead-partly in ruins and partly a community centre, constructed by Kovind during his tenure as Rajya Sabha MP. "The services are free for everyone in the village," says Anil Kumar, Kovind's nephew. "Like our father, Ram is very spiritual," says elder brother, Pyarelal, "he learnt to recite the Ramayana and the Gita at just age 15." It wasn't just his village, Kovind contributed to the development of Kanpur city too as MP, developing stretches of barren land into some of the best places to live in-from Indira Nagar near the IIT to Maharishi Dayanand Vihar in Kalyanpur-with well-tiled, shining roads, trees and steel chairs for the elderly to rest.
IDENTITY POLITICS
This is not the first time Kovind-a former BJP national spokesperson, two-term Rajya Sabha MP, a former chief of the BJP's SC/ST Morcha (1998-2002) and Supreme Court lawyer-has proved to be a good fit in the BJP's Dalit scheme of things. Kovind's is a classic story of Dalit empowerment, one that is closely linked to the identity politics of the Hindi heartland, especially at a time of simmering caste violence in the state (Saharanpur especially), the rise of the fledgling Bhim Army and escalating Dalit protests against upper-caste atrocities after the elevation of Yogi Adityanath, a Thakur, as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. There is also the issue of cow vigilantism and the beef ban which has hit sections of the Dalit population, who subsist on the slaughter and leather tanning industries.
To party insiders, it was common knowledge that, given the pro-poor and pro-weaker section line the PM and Shah have shown in the implementation of government schemes as well as political matters, the NDA nominee had to be either a Dalit, a tribal or a woman. In 2015, Modi had helped float the National Dalit Chamber of Commerce, saying: "We want Dalits as job creators and not just as job seekers." A Dalit face became a political imperative as well after the Saharanpur bloodbath and the rise of the 'Bhim Sena' in UP; and Left groups in Gujarat kicking off a movement against the BJP following the merciless thrashing of five Dalits in Saurashtra last year.
Kovind, who hails from UP and is presently governor of Bihar, is likely to be a key symbol of empowerment to woo the electorally formidable Dalit community in the two states-which together gave 104 Lok Sabha seats to the NDA in the 2014 general elections-in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But it's more than that. "With one fine stroke, the PM and Amitji have taken out whatever wind was left in the sails of the Opposition," says UP BJP spokesperson Chandramohan. "It also damages a possible SP-BSP alliance in UP, as Akhilesh will not find much use for Mayawati now." From Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to the BSP's Mayawati, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik to several southern parties, they have all spoken in favour of Kovind's selection. For who can oppose a Dalit candidate openly?
AN IDEAL GOVERNOR
On the evening of June 19, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar drove down to the Raj Bhavan. Kovind's tenure was "ideal", he said, lauding him for his "impartiality" and for being a stickler for constitutional propriety. Indeed, Kovind has never given reason for the Nitish government to complain. He backed state initiatives and cleared almost every bill sent to him, including the controversial anti-liquor legislation. As the chancellor of universities, Kovind, unlike many of his predecessors, always consulted the CM and the education minister over appointments to higher posts. Bihar education minister Ashok Choudhary, a Dalit leader and also state Congress president, touches Kovind's feet in respect whenever they meet at the Raj Bhavan. Political sources believe that Kovind will be an unobtrusive president and Rashtrapati Bhavan will be a low-key power centre, as was the Patna Raj Bhavan. Perhaps another reason why Modi chose him for the job. The PM doesn't want another A.P.J. Abdul Kalam-like president, who took some of the shine off A.B. Vajpayee during NDA-I.
Kovind certainly can take the credit for building bridges in Bihar. In August 2015, when the Centre appointed him as Bihar governor, just two months before the state assembly polls, both Nitish and the RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav were suspicious of his motives. Lalu openly censured Kovind's appointment. But as Bihar governor, he reportedly played a role in reducing the bitterness between Modi and Kumar, and endeared himself to the latter with his erudition and broad vision. At the Patna Raj Bhavan, Kovind once even hosted the play, Chanakya, for the entire Bihar cabinet, an event that impressed the Sangh parivar bigwigs. Two years down the line, the chances of Nitish ultimately backing Kovind are real. "Nitish could not have expected a better governor, even if there had been a non-BJP government at the Centre," says a JD(U) leader on condition of anonymity.
BLESSED BY THE RSS
Kovind is not an RSS insider, has never attended an RSS shakha, but is close to most senior RSS leaders. Joint general secretary, in-charge of RSS-BJP coordination, Krishnagopal firmly backed Kovind as presidential nominee. Indeed, Kovind is said to have done more to uphold Sangh ideals than many formal members. For instance, after his second Rajya Sabha term ended in 2006, he led an agitation against the UPA government for its move to give reservation privileges to Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims, calling it a fraud on the Constitution.
According to some, his strategy and active participation in Sangh-related social activities impressed the parivar. Hence the reward of the Bihar governorship. Kovind earned the reputation of a right-wing Dalit intellectual while heading the Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, a Sangh parivar body in Delhi. When he came to the foundation, it was just producing literature on RSS ideology. Kovind transformed it by introducing a lecture series by eminent citizens, including top BJP-RSS leaders. Party vice-president Shyam Jaju, who worked with Kovind at the foundation, says "he took the foundation to a whole new level".
He has also been associated for 17 years with the Haridwar-based Divya Prem Seva Mission of former RSS pracharak Ashish Gautam, which works for leprosy patients and their children. It began in 2000, when he learnt about the organisation and made a donation of Rs 25 lakh from his MP funds towards a residential school the mission was building for the children of the patients. Over the years, he has become a permanent patron of the organisation, contributing to the expenses of two students every year from his own savings. Recently, when a poor cancer patient came to seek his help in Patna he not only helped him with funds from his pocket but also called up Gautam and requested him to put the patient in touch with the Patanjali Yogpeeth of yoga guru Ramdev. "Empathy for the weak and the poor and honesty in matters of money are what marks Kovindji out," says Gautam.
A MODEST MAN
Formal, no-nonsense, quiet, non-intrusive, and at the same time a stickler for rules: that's Kovind for those who know him. Patna Raj Bhavan sources say he is a "modest man", indeed nobody has ever seen him lose his temper, or refuse an invitation-especially if it comes from his staff. A voracious reader, he spends most of his time with books, watching TV only for the news.
Father to a son, Prashant, and a daughter, Swati, Kovind and his wife Savita prefer to live simple, spartan lives. The President of India's 340-room palace may not be the life he wants, but given his personality, he is likely to accept it gracefully.
