First President

Today also, I am going back to history and briefing you all about our first President Dr Rajendra Prasad.

 Dr. Rajendra Prasad—In Dec 1946, before Independence, he was elected as Member/President of Constituent  Assembly, which was established to frame the Constitution of India. On Jan 26, 1950 when Constitution of India was adopted, he was elected as first President of the country. He remained the President of the country until 1962 thus becoming the first and only President to be elected for two terms for the office of President.. His role of President for more than 12 years have been clean and without any blemish, he adhered to the Presidential duties and acted independently of politics as expected by the office of President, and as per the constitution. He actively acted for the welfare of the citizens of the country. During his Presidency, he travelled to many countries on mission of goodwill such as Japan, Ceylon, USSR, China, Malaysia, Indonesia etc. After serving the president for 12 years, in 1962 relinquished his duties as the President and moved to Patna, where he stayed in Bihar University campus.

Now this is the general information, which has been fed to  us in the history books, but the fact is not what is projected.

The actual fact is Jawaharlal Nehru never wanted him to be President, but  all the others wanted him to be India’s first PM . Prasad’s difference with Nehru became open after the independence. The major confrontations between them started with Hindu code bill, under this, a  rule  code for all Hindus was to be created in the constitution. Rajendra Prasad protested and he suggested that such rules should only be created after taking into account the opinion of masses. Prasad was in favour of common code for all citizens, while Nehtu’s opinion was with more than 80% of Hindu Population, the minority must be kept out and protected. Nehru was adamant on getting Hindu code bill in the constitution.  Even for the interim period Nehru never wanted Rajendra Prasad to be President of Constituent Assembly , till the time constitution is passed and elections to Lok Sabha and state Assemblies held, so that President can be elected. Nehru wanted C Rajagopalachari for this post, but Sardar Patel and Rajendra Prasad had greater hold on the organization, even more than Nehru. So when constituent assembly was formed on 26^th Jan 1950, Rajendra Prasad was chosen as the 1^st President of India. The constitution was tabled in the assembly. The Hindu code bill created an uproar outside assembly and hindu leaders started protesting. Rajendra Prasad wrote to PM Nehru that as the house of representatives( Constituent assembly members) was not representing the country properly, and also wrote why only Hindus are in focus. All religions should be included in code bill. Same rules of marriage and hertage should be made for every one. In today’s context, this was quite similar to Uniform Civil Code. So Nehru had to wait till the first general elections. In 1951 , Dr Ambedkar resigned from Nehru’s cabinet, as he was against nehru’s diplomacy and policies and began the preparation to start his party before 1952 general elections

Congress won in 1952 general elections. After the general election Rajendra Prasad was elected the President, to the disliking of Nehru. Loksabha passed the Hindu Code bill in 1955-56 incorporating several amendments, which included Hindu marriage Act, Hindu Minority Act and Guardianship act, and Hindu Adoptions and maintenance Act.

SO FRIENDS IF JAWAHARLAL NEHRU HAD LISTENED TO FIRST PRESIDENT RAJENDRA PRASAD, WE WOULD HAVE COMMON CIVIL CODE. So many problems which we are facing presently, would not have risen.

While Nehru accepted the party’s will in 1952,  in the Presidential elections of 1957 Nehru had the opportunity to elect the President of his own choice, so this time he proposed the name of then VP S Radahakrishnan. But this time also large section of the Congress supported Rajendra Prasad, even Maulana Azad was also in favour of Rajendra Prasad, Nehru was once again disappointed, and had to eat a humble pie. Such  was the credibility of Rajendra Prasad, no other political party fielded a candidate opposite him.

Just before retiring from presidentship, he addressed a thanks giving rally in New Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, which was attended by nearly lakh of people. After Rajendra Prasad no Indian President has served more than one term as President.

Such was Nehru’s vindictive nature that, Rajendra Prasad was never offered  a govt accommodation in New Delhi, after he left the presidentship.  He with his wife shifted to a small room in Sadakat Ashram of Patna, with a pension of Rs 1100 per month. Such was Rajendra Babu’s nature that he even donated his wife’s jewelry to Govt’s treasury during Indo China war.

He expired on Feb 28, 1963.

So friends let me have your views/comments/feed backs on this blog.