Dr. Rajendra Prasad

First President of India,

Rajendra Prasad :- (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian political leader who served as the first President of the Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. A lawyer by training, Prasad joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independence movement and became a major leader from the region of Bihar. A supporter of Mahatma Gandhi, Prasad was imprisoned by British authorities during the Salt Satyagraha of 1931 and the Quit India movement of 1942. Prasad served one term as President of the Indian National Congress from 1934 to 1935. After the 1946 elections, Prasad served as minister of food and agriculture in the central government. Upon independence in 1947, Prasad was elected president of the Constituent Assembly of India, which prepared the Constitution of India and served as its provisional parliament.

When India became a Republic in 1950, Prasad was elected its first President by the Constituent Assembly. Following the general election of 1951, he was elected President by the electoral college of the first Parliament of India and its state legislatures. As President, Prasad established a tradition of non-partisanship and independence for the office-bearer, and retired from Congress party politics. Although a ceremonial head of state, Prasad encouraged the development of education in India and advised the Nehru government on several occasions. In 1957, Prasad was re-elected to the presidency, becoming the only president to have been elected twice for the office. 

Early life

Rajendra Prasad was a Kayastha and born in Zeradei, in the Siwan district of Bihar near Chappra. His father Mahadev Sahai, was a scholar of both the Persian and Sanskrit languages, while his mother, Kamleshwari Devi, was a religious woman who would tell stories from the Ramayana to her son. 

Student life 

When Prasad was 5 years old, his parents placed him under the tutelage of a Moulavi, an accomplished Muslim scholar, to learn the Persian language, Hindi and arithmetic. After the completion of traditional elementary education, he was sent to the Chapra District School and at a small age of 12, he was married to Rajavanshi Devi (Wife). He, along with his elder brother Mahendra Prasad, then went to study at T.K. Ghosh's Academy in Patna for a period of two years. He secured first in the entrance examination to the University of Calcutta and was awarded Rs.30 per month as a scholarship. He joined the Presidency College, Kolkata in 1902, initially as a science student. He passed Intermediate level classes then called as F. A. under the University of Calcutta in March 1904. He was a great scholar. It can be proved from the comment of an examiner who wrote on his answer sheet "examinee is better than examiner". Later he decided to focus on the arts and did his M.A. in Economics with first division from the University of Calcutta in December 1907. There he lived with his brother in the Eden Hindu Hostel. A devoted student as well as a public activist, he was an active member of The Dawn Society. It was due to his sense of duty towards his family and education that he refused to join Servants of India Society. Rajendra Prasad was instrumental in the formation of the Bihari Students Conference in 1906 in the hall of the Patna College. It was the first organization of its kind in India and produced some of the eminent leader of Bihar like Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha and.

Career : As a teacher

Rajendra Prasad served in various educational institutions as a teacher. After completing his M.A in economics, he became a professor of English at the Langat Singh College of Muzaffarpur in (Bihar) and went on to become the principal. However later on he left the college for his legal studies. In 1909, while pursuing his law studies in Kolkata he also worked as Professor of Economics at Calcutta City College. In 1915, Prasad appeared in the examination of Masters in Law, passed the examination and won a gold medal. He completed his Doctorate in Law from Allahabad University in 1937. 

Career : As a lawyer 

In the year 1916, he joined the High Court of Bihar and Odisha. Later in the year 1917, he was appointed as one of the first members of the Senate and Syndicate of the Patna University. He also used to practice law at Bhagalpur, the famous silk-town of Bihar.

Active Role

Prasad acted independently of politics, following the expected role of the president as per the constitution. Following the tussle over the enactment of the Hindu Code Bill, he took a more active role in state affairs. In 1962, after serving twelve years as the president, he announced his decision to retire. After relinquishing the office of the President of India on May 1962, he returned to Patna on 14 May 1962 and preferred to stay in the campus of Bihar Vidyapeeth. He was subsequently awarded the Bharat Ratna, the nation's highest civilian award.

Death

He died on 28 February 1963. Sadakat Ashram memorial in Patna is dedicated to him.

Varahagiri Venkata Giri

Fourth President of the Republic of India

Varahagiri Venkata Giri : (10 August 1894 – 23 June 1980), commonly known as V. V. Giri, was the fourth President of the Republic of India from 24 August 1969 to 23 August 1974. He served as Acting President of India from 3 May 1969 to 20 July 1969, before getting elected.


Early life
He was born to Varahagiri Venkata Jogaiah in a Niyogi Telugu Brahmin family, residing in Brahmapur (Berhampur) in the Ganjam district of the erstwhile Madras Presidency. The town and district are now part of the state of Odisha. His father was an eminent lawyer and migrated to Brahmapur from Chintalapalli village, now part of East Godavari District -Andhra Pradesh State.

In 1913, he went to University College Dublin to study law, but was expelled from Ireland in 1916 after becoming involved with the Sinn Féin movement.[citation needed] Involvement which brought him into close contact with Éamon de Valera, Michael Collins, Patrick Pearse, Desmond FitzGerald, Eoin MacNeill, James Connolly and others.

Career

Upon returning to India, he became heavily involved in the labour movement, becoming general secretary and then president of the All-India Railwaymen's Federation and twice serving as president of the All-India Trade Union Congress.

Giri became a member of the Imperial Legislative Assembly in 1934.

In the 1936 General Election in Madras, Giri was put up as the Congress candidate in Bobbili against the Raja of Bobbili and he won that election. He became minister of labour and industries in 1937 for the Congress Party government formed by C. Rajagopalachari in the Madras Presidency. When the Congress governments resigned in 1942, he returned to the labour movement as part of the quit India movement and was imprisoned by the British. He was lodged in Rajahmundry jail.

After India gained independence, he was first appointed high commissioner to Ceylon and then successfully ran for parliament in 1952. He was elected for 1st Lok Sabha from Pathapatnam Lok Sabha Constituency and served as minister of labour until resigning in 1954.

The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE) was founded in 1957 by a distinguished group of academicians and public men engaged in promoting the study of labour and industrial relations. The team was headed by Shri Giri.

He served successfully as governor of Uttar Pradesh (1956–1960), Kerala (1960–1965) andMysore (1965–1967).

He was elected as the third Vice President of India in 1967. Giri became Acting President of India in May 1969 upon the death in office of President Zakir Hussain. The official Congress candidate for the presidential election of 1969 was Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. However, Giri filed his papers as an independent candidate and enjoyed the tacit support of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. A third candidate in that election was C D Deshmukh who was supported by right wing opposition parties. In a closely contested election, none of the candidates won an outright majority of the preferential votes. On counting the second preferential votes, Giri emerged the winner. He was sworn in on 28 August 1969 and held office till 28 August, 1974.

He received India's highest civilian decoration, the Bharat Ratna, in 1975.

He was a prolific writer and a good orator. He has written books on 'Industrial Relations' and 'Labour problems in Indian Industry'.