Do we like Droupadi Murmu?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful in her own words and some real moments of principle, held back by one contested assent and a thin record on her personal views.
Droupadi Murmu is India's President, a Santal woman from Odisha who rose through state politics to become Governor of Jharkhand and then head of state in 2022. She wears that identity openly: in March 2026 she was in Siliguri for the International Santal Conference, a big gathering for her community.
Her best moment of principle came as Jharkhand's governor in 2017. When the state government sent her amendments to the tribal tenancy laws, she sent the bills back and asked how they would benefit tribal people. The state later dropped them, so a governor effectively said no to the government of the day on land protections for Adivasi families.
The messiest recent stoush was in March 2026. At the Santal conference she criticised West Bengal's Trinamool government for giving the organisers a smaller venue, and noted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's absence, saying “Mamata didi is my sister.” Prime Minister Modi called it “shameful”, while Banerjee said there was no protocol lapse and that the BJP was misusing the President's chair. Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra accused Murmu of parroting the BJP's words with elections coming. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a President defending her community's event or as a head of state being drawn into an election fight.
On the harm check, nothing turned up in her own words against LGBTQ+ people, migrants or minorities. The mark is an act: around 1 April 2026 she gave assent to an amended transgender rights law. It sets graded punishment for harm to transgender people, but it also defines the term narrowly, leaves out other sexual orientations and self-perceived identities, and creates an authority to decide who counts. Opposition MPs objected on those grounds, while the government said the aim was to protect transgender people. Assent is a constitutional step rather than a campaign, but it is her signature, so it earns the asterisk.
On the planet, her message is consistent. At Bastar Dussehra in October 2026 she urged people to learn from tribal communities' relationship with nature and to treat protecting it as a shared responsibility. It is a values speech rather than a policy fight, but it is the same theme she keeps returning to, and it fits her own background.
Her record is thin where we would most like it to be thick. We found no statement of hers on LGBTQ+ equality, so we can only judge what she signed, not what she thinks. For a President that is partly the job, since the role is largely ceremonial and acts on the government's advice. Still, the signature on a contested trans law is the one thing a mate in this house would want to flag.