Ex-Indian president Narayanan no more
Former Indian president Kocheril Raman Narayanan died in an army hospital yesterday, after being admitted almost two weeks ago with acute pneumonia, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
Narayanan, president for five years from July 1997, had been on life support since his admission to the hospital in New Delhi on October 29.
The 85-year-old former president was the first in India's history from the Dalit group, the name adopted by those at the bottom of India's caste system.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Throughout his tenure as president, he drew attention to the difficult conditions faced by lower-caste communities, tribal peoples, women and other groups facing discrimination in India.
In 1998, the US House of Representatives honoured Narayanan with their Statesman of the Year award, citing his "great respect for human rights in general, the rights of minorities in particular."
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