Time really is like a mystery to us. Whatever we do or whatever we want, it goes on by itself. It seems it was only a matter of time before I was elected to this position (President of the country). When I look back, there is a tide of emotion all around me. In this way, President Ramnath Bhavan remembered his five years spent in Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Ram Nath Kovind’s term ends on July 24 this month. On July 18, there is an election for the new President, for which Draupadi Murmu is from the NDA side while Yashwant Sinha is the candidate from the United Opposition.
Recalling his old days, President Ramnath says, “About five years ago I entered this grandest monument (Rashtrapati Bhavan). For someone who grew up in a village in Uttar Pradesh in the 1940s, the grandeur of Rashtrapati Bhavan may have been different, but I knew it was not just a person’s official residence.”
It was the first Indian Governor-General C Rajagopalachari who explained this change when he said that he would not take more than one room in this building, which has 340 rooms. After him, the first President Rajendra Prasad cemented the link between this building and the Gandhian ethos. Each of his successors has respected that moral framework. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy recalls in his memoirs that when he was elected as the President, he expressed his desire not to be in Rashtrapati Bhavan but to be more suited to the Gandhian lifestyle.
President Kovind says, “That word ‘symbol’ reminds me of what BR Ambedkar said about the office of the President. During the Constituent Assembly debates, he remarked that the President ‘is the symbol of the nation’. Since the last days of July 2017, I have often meditated on those words of Babasaheb. Whenever I found myself confused, I noted his words about my role – that the President ‘represents the nation’. This thing clarified everything for me.”