In his first speech as the new President, Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday called for providing equality of opportunities to all citizens and said there was a need for creating a society that conforms to the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyay. He said citizens of India were the real source of his strength and he is confident that they will continue to give him the energy to serve the nation.
Kovind took oath as India’s 14th President in an impressive ceremony at the Central Hall of Parliament on Tuesday. Chief Justice of India Justice JS Kehar administered Kovind the Oath of Office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and law”. Kovind is the first BJP leader and the second Dalit in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
“We need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethical and shared community, and an egalitarian society as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyay ji. These are integral to our sense of humanism. This is the India of our dreams, an India that will provide equality of opportunities. This will be the India of the 21st century,” Kovind said after taking over as the new President.
After he took oath, Kovind and outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee exchanged seats on the dais following which the new President was given a 21-gun salute to mark the assumption of office of the highest Constitutional post in the country.
Seventy-year-old Kovind took oath in Hindi amid applause from the gathering, which included Vice-President Hamid Ansari, lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee, and former President Pratibha Patil. Former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Devegowda, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, former Deputy Prime Minister lK Advani as well as the Union Ministers, the Chief Ministers and foreign dignitaries were present on the occasion.
“I thank you for electing me to the responsibility of the President of India, and I enter this office with all humility. Coming here to Central Hall has brought back so many memories. I have been a Member of Parliament and here, in this very Central Hall, have had discussions with many of you. Often we agreed, sometimes we disagreed. But we learnt to respect each other. And that is the beauty of democracy,” Kovind said.
Talking about his childhood and days of struggle, the President said, “My journey has been a long one, and yet this journey is hardly mine alone. It is so telling of our nation and our society also. For all its problems, it follows that basic mantra given to us in the Preamble to the Constitution — of ensuring Justice, liberty, Equality and Fraternity — and I will always continue to follow this basic mantra.”
Kovind said there is need to build an India that is an economic leader as well as a moral exemplar. “Our diversity is the core that makes us so unique. We need to build an India that is an economic leader as well as a moral exemplar,” he said. Terming each citizen of India is a nation builder, Kovind added that everyone is a custodian of India’s well-being and of the legacy that “we will pass on to coming generations.”
Earlier, Military Secretary to the President, Major General Anil Khosla, invited Kovind and his wife Savita to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, where President Pranab was waiting for them in the study. The two leaders then went to the Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt where Pranab took the last salute of the President’s Bodyguard (PBG). Following this Pranab and Kovind drove down from Raisina Hill to the Central Hall of the Parliament in a black limousine, with Pranab on the right and Kovind on the left.
Escorting them was a grand equestrian procession by the PBG, dressed in white ceremonial uniforms and blue turbans with gold ornamental work. The road from Rashtrapati Bhavan to Parliament was lined with 1,000 jawans from all three services of the armed forces offering the traditional ‘hazaar salaam’ to the President -- the supreme commander of the Defence forces.
The procession reached gate five of Parliament where Ansari, Sumitra Mahajan and Justice Kehar received Pranab and Kovind. After the oath ceremony, Kovind met leaders in Central Hall before leaving for the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the Presidential limousine, this time with Pranab on the left and India’s new President on the right. Kovind and Mukherjee returned to the Rashtrapati Bhavan where the former took charge after signing the register. later, Kovind went to drop Pranab at his new residence, 10, Rajaji Marg.
Following his election to the top office, Kovind had received congratulatory messages from several world leaders. “I hope for a constructive dialogue and active joint work with you for further advance of special and privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India, for expansion of fruitful bilateral cooperation in various spheres,” Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her congratulatory message to Kovind last week had said: “We continue to look forward to working closely with the Government of India in elevating our multifarious relations further in order to achieve common prosperity for our peoples.”