page_title: V. V. Giri
section_title: President of India
hierarchical_section_title: V. V. Giri / President of India
caption_attribution_description: English: President V V Giri led 14 state visits between 1970 and 1974, covering 21 countries. Information from the President of India's Secretariat.
context_page_description: Varahagiri Venkata Giri was the fourth president of India from 24 August 1969 to 24 August 1974. He was the only president to be elected as an independent candidate. He was succeeded by Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed as president in 1974. After the end of his full term, Giri was honoured by the Government of India with the Bharat Ratna in 1975. Giri died on 24 June 1980. His great grandson V. Giri Shankar is an Advocate of the Madras High Court, Chennai.
context_section_description: Giri was sworn in as President of India on 24 August 1969 and held office till 24 August 1974 when he was succeeded by Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. On his election, Giri became the only president to have also been an acting president and the only person to be elected president as an independent candidate.
  As president, Giri unquestioningly accepted Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's decision to sack the Charan Singh ministry in Uttar Pradesh and advised her to go in for early elections in 1971. The ordinance abolishing privy purses and privileges of the erstwhile rulers of India's princely states was promulgated by Giri after the government's original amendment was defeated in the Rajya Sabha. His advice to Prime Minister Gandhi against the appointement of A.N. Ray as the Chief Justice of India superseding three judges senior to him was ignored by her as was his warning that a crackdown on striking railwaymen would only exacerbate the situation. As president, Giri made 14 state visits to 22 countries in South and South East Asia, Europe and Africa.
  Giri is regarded as a president who completely subordinated himself to the prime minister and has been described as a "Prime Minister’s President", a loyalist president and a rubber stamp president under whom the independence of the office eroded. When Giri's term ended in 1974, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi chose not to renominate him to the presidency and instead chose Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who was elected in the presidential election of 1974.
caption: As President of India Giri led 14 state visits to countries in South and South East Asia, the Soviet bloc and Africa.
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