By Vikram Kilpady
President Droupadi Murmu has a few firsts to her credit. Apart from being the sole tribal leader to become president, she is also the youngest to assume the office and is the first president born in Independent India.
There is one more blue tick to her credit: President Murmu understands the impact and use of digital media, particularly social media. When a group of IAS officers of the 2022 batch called on her in July this year, the president told them a few things from her experience of nearly three decades.
She said the administrator’s first task is to win the trust of the people and maintain it. In pursuit of this, President Murmu told the cadre’s fresh entrants to make use of technology for accessibility, transparency and trust building. She had a word of caution as well, and spoke against using social media for self-publicity.
If one traces the news timeline, the meeting occurred precisely at the time social media was agog with the antics of an IAS probationer who made headlines for the very reasons of which President Murmu disapproves.
As the number of mobiles sold in India grows, the grip of social media over Indians’ lives has grown larger by the day. The growth of social media since 2009 has created political tsunamis like the 2014 landslide victory which brought the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power. With such presence being made a necessity for the highest office of the country, President Murmu’s victory in the 2022 presidential election coincided with the efforts of billionaire Elon Musk to buy Twitter (now named X).
Unlike the big leaders in politics, who themselves tweet or have SocMed cells in attendance, the president’s Secretariat has a dedicated team of officials for putting out Rashtrapati Bhavan-related tweets and posts on Instagram. Decisions such as renaming the erstwhile Mughal Gardens as Amrit Udyan seem to be the president’s own, with the renaming timed to accompany the celebrations of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, marking the 75th anniversary of Independence. The decision was well received on social media, with many on X and Instagram wondering why it had not happened earlier. The tweet announcing the president throwing open Amrit Udyan to the public on January 28, 2023, had over 1.6 million views, 34,500 likes, almost 4,000 reposts, 181 quote tweets and 60 bookmarks.
This year’s decision to rename Durbar Hall and Ashoka Hall in the Rashtrapati Bhavan to Ganatantra Mandap and Ashok Mandap respectively to rid the country of Anglicisation’s remnants was also met with enthusiasm.
The president uses social media for all kinds of purposes, including receiving visiting dignitaries, giving away awards, or announcing messages of condolence in case of tragedies such as the recent landslide in Wayanad. Of course, this is apart from the gallantry awards and speeches on the eve of Republic Day and Independence Day.
Not to lose touch with her stint as a teacher, the president also took classes for Class 9 students of Kendriya Vidyalaya in the Rashtrapati Bhavan campus on July 25, marking the completion of two years’ of her presidency. With views of 80,000 plus, the tweet thread is replete with responses that hail her for her simplicity and staying in touch with her true self.
The president has also not shied away from taking up a challenge and took on badminton ace Saina Nehwal on July 10. She played a few rounds ahead of Nehwal’s talk at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, seen in a tweet accompanied by four photographs, amassing over five lakh views. The tweet has several responses, many of which noted that the president was not a fuddy-duddy, incongruous in her ornate surroundings.
In August 2023, President Murmu took a historic sortie in a Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft at Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam. She became the country’s third president and its second woman president after Pratibha Patil to undertake such a sortie. The president flew for about 30 minutes covering Brahmaputra and Tezpur Valley. The aircraft was flown by Gp Capt Naveen Kumar, Commanding Officer of the 106th Squadron. The aircraft flew at a height of about two km above sea level and at a speed of about 800 km per hour (roughly Mach .671).
Expressing her appreciation, President Murmu wrote in the visitor’s book: “I congratulate the Indian Air Force and the entire team of Air Force Station Tezpur for organising this sortie.” “It was an exhilarating experience for me to fly in the mighty Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force. It is a matter of pride that India’s defence capabilities have expanded immensely to cover all the frontiers of land, air and sea,” the President wrote, according to Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Instagram post.
With social media, the good it does is often at risk of being overshadowed by its ability to magnify controversy. One such instance was President Murmu’s absence at the inauguration of the new Parliament building in New Delhi. The Opposition went to town over it by ascribing purported reasons why the president had not been invited. Similarly, her absence at the Ram Temple consecration in January had also set social media abuzz.
The impact of President Murmu on people and on social media can be illustrated by one example. Uttar Pradesh Class 10 topper Prachi Nigam, who scored 98.5%, trended on social media not just for her academic achievement, but cruelly, also for her facial hair. The girl, however, had a wonderful comeback for the trolls. She told a TV interview that beauty and other such things cannot be a true measure of a person and should instead be based upon what has been achieved. She noted with great alacrity that President Murmu didn’t make it to Rashtrapati Bhavan just because she was pretty, but because she had had a long innings in public life. Though Prachi was trolled a bit for that as well, the fact of the matter is that being a woman of substance weighs definitely more than winning, say, the Miss India crown alone.
That image of President Murmu, the Santhal woman who made it against all possible odds, is an enduring one on social media. Barring a few, mainly pointlessly inane, criticisms, President Murmu is seen as an achiever who overcame every obstacle that crowds the path to advancement for so many of the marginalised.
The president’s office has been a sinecure for political heavyweights who have either fallen out of favour or are otherwise disgruntled, and can thus be seen occasionally as a lollypop to keep leaders happy. Though APJ Abdul Kalam and Ram Nath Kovind have been prior exceptions, social media is well aware that President Murmu had a tougher road to walk.
Social media is also aware that having a president from a major Scheduled Tribe is in keeping with the republican aspect of the Constitution. And is something which had not happened in these many years; likewise with former president Kovind.
President Murmu’s image as a teacher and social worker before her entry into politics and her not holding multiple Union Cabinet posts ahead of being chosen president, though she was the governor of Jharkhand, have brought her social media love. Because, as seen by social media, the First Citizen didn’t get to her post by wheeling and dealing that was earlier seen as the only route.
President Murmu holding the august office raises the hope of every girl and boy, whether in a village or a metropolis or Tier-3 city, that the song Hum Honge Kaamyaab rings true!