BJP-led NDA’s presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu filed her nomination in Delhi on Friday. In front of him is former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha as the opposition candidate. Yashwant Sinha has held important responsibility as the Finance Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. After resigning from the BJP, he joined Mamata Banerjee’s party and was appointed as the Vice President of TMC. Yashwant Sinha has been vocal against the Modi government and has surrounded PM Narendra Modi and the BJP on various issues.
In an article in The Indian Express, Sudheendra Kulkarni says that in recent times it seemed that the most active phase of his public life was over, but it has not. Now he is ready to fight the most challenging election of his life. He may not be able to win this election, but not all battles should be fought just for victory in the traditional sense. There is a different kind of victory in fighting for your principles and beliefs. This is why Sinha’s candidature as the representative of the United Opposition becomes important for two reasons.
First, for the presidential election, anti-BJP parties have come together to answer the questions that many Indians have been asking since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, where is opposition unity? It can be said that the process of building unity of all the opposition parties has begun. Second, it may provide a direction to prepare for the big battle of 2024.
Five years ago, the making of a “Dalit President” by the BJP was extremely disappointing. Not once has Ram Nath Kovind shown the courage to express his displeasure at the government’s repeated attacks on democracy, secularism and the freedoms of other institutions. In 2019, he had also remained silent on Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s midnight ‘coup’ to revoke President’s rule and swear in BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister.
Compare this with instances when Ram Nath Kovind’s predecessor Pranab Mukherjee publicly expressed his concern over the violation of the core values of the Constitution. The rubber stamp president suits every powerful prime minister. Being elected as a tribal (female) president may bring electoral benefits to the ruling party. But these are not the purposes for which the framers of the Constitution created this post.