NEW DELHI, India -- Vice President Shankar Dayal Sharma became the ninth president of India on Saturday, vowing to use his largely ceremonial post to fight terrorism, poverty and disease.
Sharma, 74, succeeded Ramaswamy Venkataraman to begin his five-year term with a swearing-in ceremony in the central hall of the Parliament House.
'Freedom has little meaning without equality and equality has little meaning without social justice,' said Sharma in a 15-minute speech in which he pledged to fight terrorism, poverty, disease and communalism.
His speech apparently referred to a violent separatist campaign in the northern Indian states of Jammu, Kashmir and Punjab.
Communal ties have come under increasing pressure in India over the controversial construction of a Hindu temple at the site of a 16th century mosque in the holy town of Ayodhya. Muslims and Hindus claim the shrine as their own.
India's president, while mainly a symbolic figure, is head of state and chief of the armed forces. He is elected for a five-year term by members of the two houses of Parliament and 25 state assemblies.
Sharma, a nominee of the ruling Congress (I) Party of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, defeated G.G. Swell, the non-communist opposition party candidate.
Rao, his Cabinet collegues, lawmakers and ambassadors watched the ceremony at the high-domed central hall.
A 21-gun salute boomed immediately after Sharma took the oath administered by Chief Justice M.H. Kania.
Sharma is a fellow of Harvard and former professor of Cambridge. The soft-spoken president has spent more than a half-century in public life and has held several senior positions in the government and the Congress (I) Party.
