India
chose a female politician from a tribal clan to be its new president on
Thursday, giving a sizable minority population that has long been ignored new
attention.
Droupadi
Murmu, 64, is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi from the eastern state of Odisha. She is a member of the Santhal tribe,
one of the largest of India's roughly 700 recognised tribes, which account for
about 9% of the nation's population of more than 1.4 billion.
When
the election commission's findings revealed that Murmu had received a majority
of the votes cast by members of both houses of parliament as well as the
legislative assemblies of all of India's states and territories, Modi announced
her victory on social media.
The
prime minister congratulated Smt. Droupadi Murmu Ji on her accomplishment in a
Twitter message.
India
writes the history. A tribal Indian woman who was born in a distant area of
eastern India has been chosen as our president at a time when 1.3 billion
Indians are celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav!
Murmu
will succeed outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind, whose term ends on July 25, as
the second woman to lead India after Pratibha Devisingh Patil.
She
faced out against Yashwant Sinha, an opponent who had previously held a top position
in the BJP before quitting the organisation in 2018 due to disagreements with
Prime Minister Modi on economic matters. The 84-year-old Sinha previously held
the positions of foreign minister from 2002 to 2004 and finance minister for
the nation from 1998 to 2002 under the previous BJP administration.
The
BJP's efforts to win over tribal voters in state elections in Gujarat this
year, as well as in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh next year, are
expected to benefit from Murmu's presence in the presidential role. The tribal
population of India is primarily concentrated in these four states.
But
according to Delhi-based writer and commentator Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, who
specialises in Hindu nationalist politics, the triumph may not always result in
electoral gains.
"Her
win means nothing to the country's tribal people. Tokenism, he said, according
to Arab News. "It doesn't change the game for Modi. Because it gave the
BJP the opportunity to claim that the opposition parties were not backing a
tribal lady who ran against an upper-caste Hindu man named Yashwant Sinha, it
caused a lot of problems for the opposition parties. But beyond that, Modi
won't benefit from it.
Mukhopadhyay
was also dubious about how Murmu's president would affect tribal tribes, which
are among the lowest castes in India. This is because the Indian presidency is
mostly ceremonial because the prime minister is the only person with executive
responsibility.
It
won't actually help them improve their situation, according to Mukhopadhyay.
"We have observed that the situation of marginalized persons remained
unchanged over the past five years."
The
Indian president's position is purely ceremonial. The Indian president's main
responsibilities are to uphold the constitution and designate the chief justice
or attorney general. The president has the authority to declare war or reach a
peace agreement and is the ultimate commander of the Indian Armed Forces.
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