Shri Ram Nath Kovind’s elevation as the new occupant of Rashtrapati Bhawan will further enhance the grace of the office and give immense power-boost to the marginalised and weaker sections of the society
Tarun Vijay
It was May, 2012 and we were in a hurry to have the book by Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee done soon. The title of the book was the same as it was chosen by Dr Mookerjee—‘Awake Hindusthan’. The preface to the reprint of his speeches delivered in the late forties was written by RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat. The only hitch was how to have the book presented in its old glorious form. That meant some extra effort and time. Shri Ram Nath Kovind, our trustee in the Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation came to know about it and he immediately held a meeting with us at our 11 Ashoka Road office. “No going back on the predetermined schedule, the book must come out in time. Before his birth anniversary and whatever has to be done, must be done.” He insisted that all the papers regarding the speeches of Dr Mookerjee in Parliament must also be collected and presented. It’s
surprising that even that kind of a basic work hasn’t been done so far.
Very affectionate, soft-spoken and deeply rooted in the ideological stream of the RSS, he can be as firm as the rock when the situation demands for it.
His face tells a thousand words—hardly we saw him speaking loudly or getting angry, but his displeasure is immediately gets reflected on his stern face. Thats enough to make the corrections and move ahead. I have seen many politicians who have kept the burden of the past so tightly to their heart that even the normal relations get sour. Shri Ram Nath Kovind believes that public personality has no right to keep the burden, rather he must forget and look to the future.
His ideal is Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya. When we had a story on the tragic death of Pt Deendayal at Mughalsarai station and found the pillar where his dead body was found lying, he was very sad and said that there has to be some memorial plaque at that place. Hope we will be able to take up that issue now, once he assumes the responsibility of the head of the State. It’s heartening that CM, UP Shri Yogi Aditya Nath has already taken a step in this direction by announcing renaming of the Mughalsarai station after Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya.
The best quote that he would often quote from Pt Deendayal’s ‘Rashtra Jeevan Ki Disha’ was, “It is essential that we think about ‘Our National Identity’ without which there is no meaning of ‘Independence’.”
This was from the website we had created on Pt Deendayal with help from Yatindra Jeet Singh, (who passed away in the prime of his youth three years before due to cancer) from the illustrious family of barrister Narendra Jeet Singh. It was in his college at Kanpur that Pt Deendayal had studied. Shri Ram Nath would tell us many stories of his Kanpur days, struggles and the way he had to work extraordinarily to be counted at par with the ‘other’ people is an inspiring saga. He believes in the dalit empowerment so that the social message of harmony as propounded by Pt Deendayal can be realised. Dalit empowerment lies in realisation of the Samarasta and Antyodaya dream—not in the segregation, he said. His firm belief is that the path shown by PM Narendra Modi to empower the marginalised segments and to turn them as employment providers from employment seekers is the only way to follow Ambedkar and Pt Deendayal’s paths. In fact both are complementary to each other. His best speech any day would be to have a comparative study of the ideals of Dr Ambedkar and Pt Deendayal establishing the unparalleled harmony and the rebellious mood that marks both the great leaders for social empowerment and eradication of the ills that has plagued the Hindu society since long.
In politics where the disdain and jealousies for each other mark the flavour of the public debates, Shri Ram Nath Kovind stands out as an Ajaatshatru personality who has no enemies and even the sworn foes of the ideology feel shy to make any adverse comment about it. He has risen above all petty considerations of the
contemporary political Dangal and thats the reason the entire nation is supporting him. An erudite scholar and thinker par excellence, Shri Ram Nath Kovind represents the core values of Integral Humanism blended with Ambedkar’s path of social justice.
(The writer is a senior columnist and
former Rajya Sabha MP)
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