K. R. Narayanan (1920-2005):
Term of Office: 25 July 1997 to 25 July 2002

The tenth President of India, K. R. Narayanan had entered into politics at the request of Indira Gandhi. Instead of being a ‘rubber-stamp President’ or an ‘Executive President’, he extended the scope of highest constitutional office. He was named as an independent and assertive President. His Presidential address to the Nation on the Republic Day Eve in the year 2000 is told as the best example of how the President should address the nation regarding its ups and downs. He called this speech as ‘An honest self-analysis’. In his famous speech, he had said “This is a day when we take pride in our achievements, but it must surely also be a day of honest self-analysis and self-questioning about where we, as a people and a society, are headed.”

“Fifty years into our life in the Republic we find that Justice - social, economic and political - remains an unrealized dream for millions of our fellow citizens. The benefits of our economic growth are yet to reach them. We have one of the world’s largest reservoirs of technical personnel, but also the world’s largest number of illiterates; the world’s largest middle class, but also the largest number of people below the poverty line, and the largest number of children suffering from malnutrition. Our giant factories rise from out of squalor; our satellites shoot up from the midst of the hovels of the poor.

Not surprisingly, there is sullen resentment among the masses against their condition erupting often in violent forms in several parts of the country. Tragically, the growth in our economy has not been uniform. It has been accompanied by great regional and social inequalities. Many a social upheaval can be traced to the neglect of the lowest tier of society, whose discontent moves towards the path of violence...”

“To open a newspaper or to hear the news over television now requires nerves of steel. Violence in society has bared a hundred fangs as the advertisement-driven consumerism is unleashing frustrations and tensions in our society. The unabashed, vulgar indulgence in conspicuous consumption by the nouveau-riche has left the underclass seething in frustration. One half of our society guzzles aerated beverages while the other has to make do with palmfuls of muddied water. Our three-way fast lane of liberalization, privatization and globalization must provide safe pedestrian crossings for the unempowered India also so that it too can move towards ‘Equality of Status and Opportunity’ ...”