University For The Disabled

Its blind chancellor predicted that Kovind would be president

- Ajay Uprety

When the BJP made the surprise announcement of Ram Nath Kovind’s candidature for presidency, newspapers reported that a blind guru, Rambhadracharya, had prophesied it. A few weeks later, the guru confirmed it to me. “Kovind met me at a function in Samastipur [Bihar] in May,” he said. “I told him that his good demeanour and humbleness will soon take him to the topmost post of the country. Soon after the announcement of his candidature, he called me and said ‘I was just dreaming about [becoming] vice president, and you made me the president’.”

I met Jagadguru Rambhadracharya at Tulsi Peeth, his ashram in Satna, Madhya Pradesh. He was born Giridhar Mishra in 1950 in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. As an infant, he lost his eyesight to trachoma and throughout his life he has worked to uplift the disabled. In 2001, he established what he claims is the world’s first university for the disabled, in Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh. Chitrakoot straddles two states and is about two kilometres from his ashram in Satna.

A Sanskrit scholar, poet, commentator and author, Rambhadracharya received the Padma Vibhushan in 2015 for serving the disabled. He travels the country reciting Ram Katha. He said he knew 22 languages mentioned in the Constitution.