A farewell to Narayanan

It may be trite in this moment to say that the new presidency the 21 guns will salute today is not really new. It is obvious that the 12th p...

It may be trite in this moment to say that the new presidency the 21 guns will salute today is not really new. It is obvious that the 12th president of India steps into an office that has been shaped by its previous incumbents.

But as A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is sworn in, it is possible to go further perhaps. To say that the most vibrant imprint will have been left behind by the outgoing president, K.R. Narayanan, and not merely because he was the last man in. Narayanan8217;s term will be remembered for reasons more meaningful and more controversial than that. He was responsible for retrieving presidential powers that had been either lost or wilfully squandered over the years by presidents too timid, too overwhelmed by prime ministerial authority. He brought to his office a new self-assurance and, yes, assertion.

Narayanan did not allow himself to luxuriate in the sheer symbolism of his candidature. The swearing in of the first Dalit president in the 50th year of Indian democracy was imbued with a politically correct picturesqueness but the 8216;working president8217; was not one to be trapped in any frame.

He stepped out on several occasions 8212; returning the I.K. Gujral government8217;s recommendation for President8217;s rule in Uttar Pradesh in 1997 and the Vajpayee government8217;s ordinance on Bihar in 1998. There were other moments too. As when, on the eve of the 52nd Republic Day, the president came as close as he possibly could to indicting the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution set up by the Vajpayee government. Against the backdrop of pleas for change in the name of stability, the customary presidential address insisted that 8216;8216;the founding fathers had the wisdom and foresight not to overemphasise the importance of stability and uniformity8230;8217;8217;, going as far as to intone 8216;8216;it would be an irony of history if we invoke today in the name of Gandhi8230; shades of the political ideas of Field Marshal Ayub Khan8230;8217;8217;

His leaked notings on the 8216;under-representation or non-representation8217;8217; of eligible persons of the SC/ST categories in higher judicial appointments invited controversy. As did the letter he recently wrote on the continuing crisis in Gujarat.

Did Narayanan venture too far? There will always be two ways of looking back at Narayanan8217;s tenure. It will always be possible to contend that presidential activism of the kind he practiced is fraught with danger. That in a parliamentary democracy, the president has no power to intervene, except in times of crisis. But both his critics and supporters will undoubtedly agree on one count: that Narayanan is the president who extended the possibilities of that debate.