A day before he is scheduled to file his nomination for the upcoming presidential elections, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, the joint opposition's consensus candidate, on Sunday said there was no ‘dharma sankat’ about not getting support from his son Jayant Sinha, a parliamentarian from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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“I am not under any ‘dharma sankat’ over not getting the support of my son. He follows his ‘Raj Dharma’ and I will follow my ‘Rashtra Dharma’,” Sinha, himself a former member of the BJP, told news agency PTI.
The 84-year-old ex-diplomat further described the July 18 election as ‘much more than a personal contest.’ He said, “It is much more than a personal fight. Also, it is more than merely the election of President of India. It is a step towards resisting the authoritarian policies of the government. It is a message to the people of India that there should be resistance to these policies.”
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{{/usCountry}}On his part, Jayant Sinha, in a video message on June 21, hours after the announcement of his father's candidature, urged people to 'not look at me as a son.' A former Union minister himself, Jayant Sinha said, “…please don't make this a family matter. I'm a karyakarta of the BJP and MP from Hazaribagh. I am fully aware of my constitutional duties, and will fulfill them.”
Meanwhile, in his PTI interview, Yashwant Sinha also spoke about Droupadi Murmu, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) nominee for the country's highest constitutional office.
“From my long experience of public life, I can say the elevation of one individual does not elevate the whole community. The community's elevation depends on the policies followed by the government,” Sinha senior said.
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If elected, Murmu will be the first tribal, and the second woman, after Pratibha Patil, to be the President of India. A former governor of Jharkhand, and the ninth person and first female to hold that post, she filed her nomination on Friday; she was accompanied by several Union ministers, including prime minister Narendra Modi, and CMs of BJP-ruled states.
The winner of the Murmu-Sinha contest, widely expected to be the former, will be the 15th President, and succeed the incumbent, Ramnath Kovind.
(With PTI inputs)