From the archive record
Ram Nath Kovind, Indian lawyer and politician is the current president of India. He was the second person from the Dalit caste, after Kocheril Raman Narayanan, and the first member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to hold the office. Kovind worked in the Delhi Free Legal Aid Society, and he also served (1971–75, 1981) as general secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Koli Samaj, an organization serving the interests of the Koli community, a Dalit subcaste. From 1977 to 1979 he was a union government advocate in the Delhi High Court, and in 1978 he became an advocate-on-record of India’s Supreme Court. In 1980 Kovind advanced to the position of union government standing counsel in the Supreme Court, and he practised there until 1993. In addition, he served (1977–78) as the executive assistant