Category Our Presidents

            In 1984, on Indira Gandhi’s request Narayanan entered into electoral politics. He won three successive general elections to the Lok Sabha in 1984, 1989 and 1991 from the Ottappalam constituency in Kerala.

            He also held various ministerial roles in the cabinet of Rajiv Gandhi. He held the portfolios of Planning, External Affairs, and Science and Technology at different times, between 1985 and 1989.

            As a Member of the Parliament, he resisted international pressure to tighten patent controls in India.

            In 1992, former Prime Minister V.P. Singh proposed Narayanan’s name for the office of the Vice President. He was elected as the Vice President of India on 21st August 1992, under the presidency of Shankar Dayal Sharma. He was unanimously elected to the post. He served as the ninth Vice President of India from 1992 to 1997.

            After completion of his tenure as Vice President, he was elected as the President of India and assumed the office on 25th July 1997. He served for five years and retired in 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            After finishing his higher studies in the London School of Economics, K.R. Narayanan returned to India. At that time he met Jawaharlal Nehru, who offered him a job in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). Narayanan joined the IFS in 1949.

            During his service in the IFS, Narayanan worked as a diplomat in many foreign capitals such as Rangoon, Tokyo, London, Canberra, and Hanoi. He also served as India’s ambassador to Thailand, Turkey, and the People’s Republic of China. Narayanan’s tenure as Indian ambassador to China was the first such high level Indian diplomatic posting in that country after the 1962 Sino-Indian War. Narayanan retired from the IFS in 1978.

            In 1980, Indira Gandhi appointed K.R. Narayanan as India’s ambassador to the United States. Narayanan played a pivotal role in facilitating Indira Gandhi’s landmark visit to the United States in 1982, during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. The visit played an important role in improving the strained relations between the two countries.

            Nehru, who had also been the Minister for External Affairs during his 16 years as PM, commented that K.R. Narayanan was “the best diplomat of the country”.

               Kocheril Raman Narayanan was born on 4th February, 1921 in the village of Uzhavoor in the Kottayam district in Kerala. K.R. Narayanan was born and brought up in a very poor family. He had to walk for miles to reach his school, only to stand outside the class to attend the lectures, as his fees were always overdue.

               After enduring such hardships, Narayanan obtained his BA (Honours) and MA in English literature from the University of Travancore (present-day University of Kerala), standing first in the University.

            After finishing college, K.R. Narayanan moved to Delhi, and took up job as a journalist. For one year he worked at ‘The Hindu’ and later joined ‘The Times of India’, as a reporter.

            At the same time, he aspired to continue his higher studies in London. As he had financial constraints he approached J.R.D. Tata, who gave him a scholarship. This helped him to go to England in 1945, where he studied Economics and Political Science at the London School of Economics. In London, he got acquainted with V.K. Krishna Menon and became a part of the Indian League.

            Later, he graduated from the London School of Economics with First Class Honours specializing in political science.

               K.R. Narayanan was the first Indian President from the Dalit community. He was also the first person from Kerala to be elected as the President of our nation. Narayanan was the tenth President of India.

               Narayanan did not hesitate to speak his mind, and he is regarded as an independent and assertive President, who set several precedents, and enlarged the scope of the highest constitutional office.

               After finishing his studies, Narayanan was appointed in the Indian Foreign Service on the advice of Nehru. He then went on to be the Indian Ambassador to Thailand, Turkey, and China.

               In 1980, he was appointed as India’s Ambassador to the United States. After he returned, in the next general elections, he contested from the Ottappalam constituency as a Congress candidate. He got elected by a fair margin, becoming the Minister of State in Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet. He later became the Minister for Science and Technology as well.

               Narayanan was elected as Lok Sabha member two more times. He became the Vice President of the country in 1992. In 1997, he succeeded Shankar Dayal Sharma as the 10th President of India, occupying the office till 2002.

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               Sharma was internationally recognised even before he attained his political fame. He taught law at Lucknow University for nine years, and later, at Cambridge University. Sharma was a Bar-at-Law from Lincoln’s Inn, and even became a Fellow of the Harvard Law School.

               He excelled as a sportsman in athletics, rowing, and swimming. He even tried his hand at journalism by writing on diverse topics such as history, art and culture, philosophy, poetry, literature, and comparative religions. His articles have been published in many reputed international journals.

               The International Bar Association has presented to Sharma the Living Legends of Law Award of Recognition for his outstanding contribution to the legal profession.

               He led several official delegations to international conferences including a parliamentary delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference at Oslo in 1980; a special delegation of veteran freedom fighters to Moscow in August, 1987, for the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of India’s independence during the Festival of India in the USSR, also led a special delegation of veteran freedom fighters to Jalalabad, Afghanistan to pay homage to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in 1988.

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             After playing a significant role in the independence movement, Shankar Dayal Sharma played a prominent role in the formation of former Bhopal state, too.

            After India’s independence, the Nawab of Bhopal expressed his wish to retain the Bhopal princely state as a separate unit. Sharma led public agitations against the Nawab in December 1948. He was arrested on charges of leading a public agitation against the Nawab. He also served a jail term for violating restrictions on public meetings. He was later released under public pressure, and the Nawab was forced to sign the agreement for merge with the Indian union on 30th April, 1949.

           In the year 1952, he became the Chief Minister of the former state of Bhopal. He was the youngest Chief Minister at the time. He served in that position until the state re-organisation of 1956, when Bhopal state merged with several other states to form the state of Madhya Pradesh.