Rashtrapati Bhavan: No religious events at Rashtrapati Bhavan as President Murmu sticks to Kovind-era practices | India News

NEW DELHI: Droupadi Murmu, who completed one year as President on July 25, has continued with several practices adopted by her predecessor Ram Nath Kovind.

Kovind had discontinued religious functions such as iftar and carol singing in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The functions remain suspended in the incumbent President’s tenure as well.
Till Pranab Mukherjee was the President between 2007 and 2014, iftar and carol singing on Christmas used to be an annual affair.

Diwali, Raksha Bandhan and Holi are some of the other festivals besides iftar and Christmas which were traditionally celebrated in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Iftar
However, iftar was different from all other festivals as it used to be the only religious festival when the President used to host dinner for dignitaries. Iftar in Rashtrapati Bhavan used to be more of a politico-religious function when senior leaders of all political parties including the Congress, Left and BJP, used to attend the event on invitation of the President.
In all the other festivals, people from different walks of life used to visit the Rashtrapati Bhavan and greet the President.
But iftar, organised during the Ramzan month, was discontinued for the first time in 2002 when Abdul Kalam became the President during the BJP-led NDA rule of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The ‘Missile Man’ did not favour the practice of the Rashtrapati Bhavan organising a politico-religious function with public funds. After putting a halt to the practice, he directed that the funds earmarked for iftar be donated to orphanages.
Though Kalam stopped iftar, he kept meeting people from different walks of life on Eid.
Kalam kept iftar suspended even after the Congress-led UPA headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to power in 2004.
However, iftar was revived when Kalam’s successor Pratibha Patil entered the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2007.
Pranab Mukherjee, who succeeded Patil, also continued with hosting iftar in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Mukherjee, who was the President till 2017, continued to host iftar even after Narendra Modi became the prime minister in 2014.
But iftar used to be different during his period. Earlier, the prime minister of the day used to attend the iftar party thrown by the President. But Modi was the first PM to stop attending iftars.
Mukherjee had hosted the last iftar of his tenure as president on June 23, 2017. The guests included the then vice-president Hamid Ansari, opposition leaders such as then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Rajya Sabha MP Mohsina Kidwai and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury among others.
However, PM Modi skipped the iftar dinner for four consecutive years between 2014 and 2017.
In 2014, PM Modi went to Mumbai to attend a programme. In 2015 and 2016, he skipped iftar parties though he was present in the national capital.
He was attending a meeting of chief ministers from the northeastern states in 2015. Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who was the then home minister, was briefing Modi on an important internal security matter In 2016.
In 2017, PM Modi left for a three-nation tour the same morning when Mukherjee had thrown an iftar dinner.
Though PM Modi did not attend any iftar party in 2014, 2015 and 2016, the BJP-led NDA government was represented by one of the Union ministers such as Rajnath Singh, late Arun Jaitley or former Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
However, no Union minister attended the iftar party in 2017, the last one thrown by Mukherjee. Iftar was unrepresented by the central government that year.
After Kovind succeeded Mukherje as the President, Rashtrapati Bhavan stopped holding all religious festivals, including iftar.
President Murmu also followed the footsteps of her predecessor and did not throw any iftar party ahead of Eid which was celebrated in April this year.
Carol singing
As far as carol singing is concerned, it used to be organised every year on Christmas. However, like iftar it was also stopped after Kovind became the President in 2017.
Till 2016, carol had been sung every year except once. Pratibha Patil dropped the Christmas celebrations, including the singing of carols, in 2008 as a mark of respect for the victims of Mumbai terror attack on November 26.
Though Christmas was not celebrated in 2008, Rashtrapati Bhavan delivered grocery items such as rice, sugar, dal and ghee to orphanages in Delhi on the then President’s behalf.
Diwali celebrations also stopped taking place in Rashtrapati Bhavan from 2017 when Kovind became its occupant.
However, the majestic monument was lit with multi-coloured LED bulbs. The same practice has continued since then.
President Murmu has followed the practices established by Kovind by cancelling events such as iftar, carol singing and Diwali. The Rashtrapati Bhavan has adopted a different kind of secular approach by not organising religious events.