1998, 2019, 2024: How 3 speeches by the President framed mandate, Constitution and coalition

In President Murmu’s address, the coalition phase has been referred to as a phase of “unstable governments” that lasted “several decades,” when “many governments, even if willing, were neither able to bring reforms nor take critical decisions.” Mandate 2024, she said, was a “decisive” one and one of trust in “policy, intention, dedication and decisions.”

Cut to 2019. The first address of Kovind to MPs also used the expression “clear mandate” and made no mention of the NDA or coalition. The BJP has fallen short of a majority by 32 seats this time, while it was 31 seats above the majority mark in 2019. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee had come to power in 1998 with a large NDA and a BJP with just above 180 seats, the tone of the Presidential address delivered by KR Narayanan was conciliatory.

Narayanan had said that there was a need to rise above “notions of majority and minority in the House,” and work in a spirit of “cooperation, conciliation and consensus…dialogue, debate and discussion will replace the narrow antagonisms of the past.”

The text of 2019 speech used the expression New India 21 times. This time, there is no mention of “New India” in Murmu’s speech. Her speech uses the term “changing India” once, referring to infrastructure development as the new face of “changing India.” Narayanan’s address had one reference to New India – one that would be “free from insecurity, hunger and corruption”.

In her speech, President Droupadi Murmu referred to the Constitution 11 times – with five of the references being about challenges to and the defence of the Constitution over the decades, particularly during the Emergency.

Kovind in his speech to both Houses Parliament on June 20, 2019, as the 17th Lok Sabha began, referred to the constitution eight times, without referring to any “attack” on the Constitution. In his speech, the Constitution was cited as providing “guidance for ensuring social, economic and political justice, as well as securing equality and liberty for all citizens.”

While Kovind had called for one-nation, one-election in 2019, this reference was missing in Murmu’s speech Thursday. Significantly, a committee headed by him has recommended a roadmap for one nation, one election, wherein the President would issue notification of the ‘appointed date’ from which the transition begins, and this would be the date of the first sitting of the Lok Sabha. However, there was no mention of simultaneous elections this time.

Kovind’s speech thanked the Election Commission for the successful conduct of the elections but Murmu made a specific mention of the controversy over electronic voting machines (EVMs), which some opposition leaders had raised questions about.

Kovind’s 2019 speech had no direct attack on the Opposition only saying that people in 2014 had elected a government with absolute majority after three decades, “in order to take the country out of a sense of gloom and instability”. This time, the President, without naming the Congress, cited the Emergency, and added that the good turnout in the Lok Sabha polls showed that Jammu and Kashmir had given a befitting reply to “enemies” of India “within the country and outside.”

Narayanan’s speech was conciliatory in this regard. He said, “Ours is a multi-party democracy in which constructive dialogue, consultation and cooperation between the ruling and the opposition parties are essential for evolving a broad platform of national consensus. The government will, therefore, strive for evolving a consensus mode of governance as far as practicable.”