From common villager to Prez of India; a journey of Murmu on 65th b'day

On Droupadi Murmu's 65th birthday on June 20, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished her on Twitter saying that "Birthday greetings to Rashtrapati Ji. A beacon of wisdom, dignity and commitment to the welfare of our people, she is admired for her efforts to further the nation's progress. Her dedication continues to inspire us all. Wishing her good health and long life".

In addition, President Droupadi Murmu is making the Rashtrapati Bhavan Library, which has 33,000 books and 2,000 rare works, accessible to the public online. A plan to open the digitized Rashtrapati Bhavan library to researchers and common people alike; the tradition of celebrating statehood days in the first citizen's residence, which was previously restricted to the respective State Bhavans in the national capital, professional athletes and children with access to the presidential estate's sports facilities. 

Droupadi Murmu is an Indian politician and former teacher who was elected President of India in 2022 and currently holds the position. She is the first member of the tribal community to hold office and the second woman to do so after Pratibha Patil. She is also the first President to be born in an independent India and the youngest person to hold the position. Now let us look at her journey from personal to President of India.

Droupadi Murmu was born on June 20, 1958, to a Santali family in the Baidaposi neighbourhood of Rairangpur, Odisha, in the village of Uparbeda. She had a farmer father named Biranchi Narayan Tudu. Puti Tudu was her family name. She was renamed by her teacher to Droupadi, and her name was changed a few times to those Durpadi and Dorpdi before. 

Murmu attended the Uparbeda primary school nearby to study elementary education. She moved to Bhubaneswar for higher education at the age of five. She went to Girl's High School Unit-2 for her secondary education, and Rama Devi Women's College gave her a B.A. degree.

In 1980, she tied the knot with banker Shyam Charan Murmu, with whom she had two sons and a daughter. Between 2009 and 2015, her husband, two sons, mother, and brother all passed away. She is a spiritual follower of the Brahma Kumari movement.

Murmu was nominated by the BJP as the National Democratic Alliance's candidate for India's presidency in June 2022. As part of the national campaign, Murmu went to various states to request support for her candidacy from lawmakers from the BJP and other opposition parties. When she went to the Northeastern states, prominent opposition parties supported her, including the JMM party of Jharkhand, the BJD party of Odisha, the Shiv Sena party of Maharashtra, the BSP party of Uttar Pradesh, and the JDS party of Karnataka.

Controversy arises when Congress tweeted about Murmu "a dummy BJP candidate". Tejaswi Yadav of the RJD referred to her as "a statue and said that Rashtrapati Bhavan did not require one". Ajay Kumar, a leader of the Congress, stated, "It's not about Droupadi Murmu. She is also a decent person but Yashwant Sinha is a good candidate. But she represents a very evil philosophy of India. We should not make her a symbol of 'Adivasi".