Ram Nath Kovind Biography, Birth, Age, Family, Education, Career, and Wiki

Ram Nath Kovind Biography

Ram Nath Kovind, (born October 1, 1945, Paraukh, Uttar Pradesh state, India), Indian lawyer and politician who served as president of India (2017– 2022). He was the second person from the Dalit caste, after Kocheril Raman Narayanan, and the first member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to hold the office.

Ram Nath Kovind Wiki Profile

Ram Nath Kovind Education

Kovind grew up in humble circumstances in a small agrarian village where his father farmed and ran a small grocery store. His mother died when he was a young child. After earning degrees in commerce and law from Kanpur University, he moved to Delhi in order to take the civil services examination. Although he passed, Kovind chose to begin practicing law and was admitted to the bar in 1971.

Ram Nath Kovind Career

Career as an Advocate

Ram Nath Kovind started his career in 1971 as an advocate with the Bar Council and served as the Central Government Advocate from 1977 to 1979. Between 1977 and 1978, he served as the personal assistant of PM Morarji Desai.

In 1978, he became an advocate-on-record of the Supreme Court of India and served as a standing counsel for the central government in the Supreme Court of India from 1980 to 1993. 

While serving as an advocate, he provided pro bono aid to the weaker sections of the society under the Free Legal Aid Society of New Delhi. 

Career as a Politician

Kovind joined the BJP in 1991 and served as the president of the BJP Dalit Morcha between 1998 and 2002. He then served as the national spokesperson of the BJP and donated his ancestral home in Paraunkh to the RSS. He contested from Ghatampur and Bhognipur assembly constituency on the BJP ticket but lost on both occasions. 

Rajya Sabha MP

Kovind became a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh in April 1994 and served for two consecutive terms until March 2006. During his tenure, he served on the Parliamentary Committee for Welfare for Scheduled Castes and Tribes,  Home Affairs, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Social Justice and Empowerment, Law and Justice. He was also the Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha House Committee. 

He has also served on the Board Management of Dr. B.R Ambedkar University, Lucknow, and on the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta. He has also represented India at the UN and addressed the UN General Assembly in 2002. 

Governor of Bihar

He was appointed as the Governor of Bihar in August 2015 and served on the post until 2017. His appointment on the post was criticised by CM Nitish Kumar as it came months before the 2015 state Assembly elections and the appointment was made without consulting the state government as recommended by Sarkaria Commission. 

While serving as the Governor of Bihar, he was praised for constituting a judicial commission to investigate irregularities in the promotion of undeserving teachers, mismanagement of funds and appointment of undeserving candidates in universities.

President of India

He was nominated as the 14th President of India, won the election on 20 July 2017 and received 65.5% votes. He became the second Dalit President after K. R. Narayanan, and also is the first BJP candidate with an RSS background to be elected to the post. He took the oath as the 14th President of India on 25 July 2017.

Ram Nath Kovind Wife and Children

Ram Nath Kovind tied the knot with Savita on 30 May 1974 and the couple have a son Prashant Kumar and a daughter Swati. 

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Some Lesser Known Facts About Ram Nath Kovind

• Ram Nath was born to a middle-class family in Paraukh village of Kanpur Dehat, which has a majority of Thakurs and Brahmins, with only 4 Dalit families in the village, including his family.
• His father was a “Chaudhary of Paraukh village”, a “Vaidya” (practitioner of ayurveda), an owner of a grocery and garment shops.
• He was a bright student who did his schooling from Khanpur town of Kanpur Dehat. Later, he moved to Kanpur city to pursue Commerce and Law from Kanpur University.
• After his graduation, he started preparing for the Civil Services examination in Delhi where he met ‘Jana Sangh’ leader, Hukum Chand (from Ujjain), after which he developed an interest in politics.
• He started his career as a lawyer and was enrolled as an Advocate in 1971 with the Bar Council of Delhi.
• From 1977 to 1979, he worked as a Central Government Advocate in Delhi High Court. During this period he also worked as a ‘personal assistant’ to the then Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai.
• In 1978, he became an Advocate-on-Record of the Supreme Court of India.
• From 1980 to 1993, he worked as a Central Government Standing Counsel in Supreme Court.
• He practiced in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court for around 16 years. During this period, he played a pivotal role in providing free legal aid to the weaker sections of society, such as – SC/ST, women, needy and the poor under the aegis of “Free Legal Aid Society” in Delhi.
• In 1997, he joined the movement of SC/ST employees against the Central Government and eventually succeeded in getting those Government Orders, which were objectionable to the SC/ST employees, null and void by the passage of 3 Amendments to the Constitution of India during the first tenure of the NDA government.
• During his tenure as a Member of Parliament (MP), he worked for the upheaval of basic infrastructure for education in rural areas and construction of school buildings in Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand under MPLAD Fund.
• He was Member of following important Parliamentary Committees – Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs, Parliamentary Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas, Parliamentary Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, Parliamentary Committee on Law and Justice, and Chairman of Rajya Sabha House Committee.
• He was also a member of the Board of Management of Dr. B.R Ambedkar University, Lucknow, and Member of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.
• In October 2002, he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York, representing India.
• He has also served as the national spokesperson of BJP.
• He was the former president of BJP ‘Scheduled Castes Morcha’ and ‘All-India Koli Samaj.’
• On 8 August 2015, he succeeded Keshari Nath Tripathi as the 36th Governer of Bihar. 
• On 19 June 2017, BJP’s National President, Amit Shah, announced his name as NDA’s nominee for India’s Presidential Election.
• On 20 July 2017, after the counting of votes, he emerged victorious among the candidates. He defeated his closest rival, Meira Kumar, by securing 65% of total votes polled. He received 2930 votes with a value of 702044, whereas, Meira Kumar, received 1844 votes with a value of 367314.
• On 25 July 2017, he took the oath of office and secrecy by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar as the 14th President of India succeeding Pranab Mukherjee; he held the post till 24 July 2022 after Droupadi Murmu was elected as the 15th President of India.

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