Indian’s in India and the Indian diaspora abroad are celebrating the election of Madame Droupadi Murmu as the next President of India. She was born in a tribal community in June 1958 in the village of Uparbeda of Rairangpur, Mayurbhanj, Odisha. It is one of the most remote and underdeveloped districts of the country. There are 700 tribes with a combined population of 100 million tribal people in India. In 1997 Droupadi was elected a BJP councillor. She went on to become a minister in the coalition government of BJD-BJP alliance from 2000 to 2004. In 2015 she was appointed as a Governor of Jharkhand. While for decades the Socialists and their fellow travellers paid lip service to tribal communities and disadvantaged classes, the present government has actually brought about a radical shift in opening up opportunities to all sections of Indian society. We hear of Rickshaw drivers’ children getting admitted to the top most universities of India and in sports too the poorest have risen to being national heroes. I have yet to hear anything in the national media here in the UK about this positive news nor have our Socialist Lord’s and Indian academics at Oxford, Cambridge and other Universities commented on this news. Normally they are very quick to call the Indian government as oppressive and undemocratic at the first opportunity. Nothing from US based Amartya Sen who predicts doom and gloom in his every sermon on India.
For me the name Droupadi reminds me of the other Droupadi who is one of the greatest icons in Indian History. The Droupadi of the Mahabharata. When the evil Dushashan was trying to disrobe Droupadi, Lord Krishna came to her assistance. Another time the angry Rishi Durvasa Muni and his disciples turned up at the Pandavas residence in the forest and.demanded to be fed. The Pandavas had the Akshay Patra pot which would give food every day but once Sita had eaten and washed the pot would not give anything till the next day. Droupadi had already washed the pot for the day. There was nothing to feed the angry Durvasa and his disciples. Pandavas were in great danger of being cursed by the Rishi. At that point Droupadi prayed to Krishna for help. Krishna appeared and asked to see the pot. He found a single grain of rice and ate it. At the same time Durvasa and his disciples felt completely full and decided to cancel their eating programme!
The new President Droupadi has also faced many challenges in her life. Between 2009 and 2015 she lost her husband, two sons, her mother and brother. She was in great pain and it was only when she visited the Brahma Kumaris spiritual mission she found a new sense of direction. When someone comes to you in distress and if you give whatever help you can, it could turn out that the person in future could become a great man or woman. The Brahma Kumaris’ role in the life of President Droupadi will be positively recognised by people everywhere. Similarly late Steve Jobs, co-founder and chief executive of Apple Computers used to walk 7 miles every Sunday evening to a Hare Krishna temple for a good meal/prasadam. This was at the time when he was struggling financially. Again the Hare Krishna movement’s legendary free food distribution found a future visionary who candidly admitted his appreciation of the Hare Krishna movement.
While there is strife and no democracy in many countries of the world, India is witnessing a new and novel approach of nation building and facing up to a huge array of vested interest groups trying to destabilise the country.
Nitin Mehta
23 July 2002.
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