05-24-2007, 08:58 PM
Deccan Chronicle, 23 May 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>A Suitable President
By Ram Jethmalani </b>
Within the next couple of months the nation will proceed to elect the successor of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. <b>The sophisticated gentleman that he is, he never canvassed for a second term and unwittingly offended the Left by recommending the installation of two-party democracy in this country.</b>
The coming election raises issues which have been superficially noticed in earlier elections but never seriously addressed by any political party. There is a remote chance we will come up with the right answers this time.
<b>The President may not be the arbiter or final interpreter of the Constitution, but he certainly is a guardian of its spirit and preserver of its unwritten conventions and over-laid traditions. </b>
During the interregnum between the defeat of a government and the installation of a new one, his powers get enlarged to the limits of his statesmanship and the confidence reposed in him by the political sovereign, namely the people of India. <b>His legal powers may not be wide, but his real power rests on his moral stature and the public esteem he enjoys. With a simple nod of disapproval he should be able to bring back a derailed Council of Ministers to the path of rectitude and propriety.</b>
The Constitution did not leave the choice of the President to the majority of members of the Lok Sabha, but to a majority of both Houses and all legislatures in India. The Constitution intended that the President should be the choice of the whole nation and the visible embodiment of its sovereignty.
The Constitution requires a secret ballot for the presidential poll. This ensures perfect freedom of choice which nobody can investigate or question. It certainly excludes the issue of a whip by political parties. The late Mrs Indira Gandhi set up a valuable precedent when President V.V. Giri was elected defeating the partyâs nominee. <b>Leaders of political parties are conducting meetings to find a suitable President. Though this is not an ideal method, yet one cannot cavil at it in a party ridden democracy. One can only hope that they are looking for someone who will bring honour and dignity to the nation.</b>
<b>The first two Presidents, Dr Rajendra Prasad and Dr Radhakrishnan provided clues to presidential qualifications and credentials.</b> The former had been a valiant upholder of Constitutional values, possessed sterling character and towering stature. He was neither politically nor intellectually inferior to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the best PMs that India has produced.
<b>The latter possessed considerable academic and spiritual achievements. The great historian Arnold Toynbee said this about him: "I admire and love the philosopher Dr Radhakrishnan and am delighted to see even the weight of the presidency cannot overwhelm him."
After Indiaâs Chinese debacle and the resignation of Krishna Menon, he took matters in his own hands, and virtually directed foreign policy, advised generals in command, visited forward areas and publicly acknowledged the governmentâs credulity and negligence. Pandit Nehru acquiesced in his dazzling role.</b>
This however does not exhaust our expectations of a President. Those who have taken upon themselves the task of identifying the next President, should have before them an inventory of the major problems that the nation faces. They should next find out whether the potential President has thought about these problems and shared his views and solutions with the people. Moreover, does his public performance lend credence to his pronouncements?
The first and foremost problem that faces us is grinding poverty. <b>Despite government statistics I believe that half the nation lives below the poverty line. Free market economics of the early Nineties may have raised the GDP growth to nine per cent per annum, but the newly created wealth has not gone to the starving millions. </b>
It has not created any insurance against natural disasters and malnutrition-induced diseases and disorders. It has not provided a civilised shelter to the millions who sleep on footpaths and eke out a miserable existence in filthy slums.
It is relevant to enquire whether the aspiring denizen of the Rashtrapati Bhavan has seriously thought of this miserable sector and designed some way of escape for them. Has he ever thought of ways to distribute wealth fairly, control population, eliminate wars, violence and terrorism?
The Constitution proclaims that all citizens irrespective of religion, caste, place of birth, residence are entitled to equality before the law. It recognises at the same time that treating un-equals equally is to practice and perpetuate inequality. It, therefore, took special notice of the majority of our citizens who for centuries had been humiliated, and discriminated against. They are the backward classes including of course the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
Has the aspirant ever concerned himself about their fate? What compensation does he have in mind for them? Where has he stood on the issue of imperative measures to raise them to a level from which they can compete on equal terms with the rest of their fellow beings?
Where did he stand when the enforcement of the Mandal report was being vehemently opposed and debated before the Supreme Court? Did he protest when the Central government decided officially that Mandal would not be enforced in the matter of recruitment for employment under it?
Lastly, where does he stand on the current governmentâs move to give OBCs a slot in our institutions of higher education?
Godhra and its tragic aftermath require another overriding qualification from the aspiring President. Did he condemn the guilty or did he indulge in obfuscations and excuses? The national psyche suffered dangerous wounds. Did the aspirant apply soothing honey or did he use this tragedy to derive cheap electoral benefits?
The President must be a person who owes no loyalty to any political party, who is able to rise above party politics and dispassionately diagnose the disease of the body politic and prescribe the necessary balm. His personality and antecedents must assure completely of his integrity and impartiality and total commitment to national integration. Threatened minorities, unless assured total security and a fair share of the national cake, are bound to turn to violence and even acts of treason.
Those who wish to influence the selection of the next President must examine the record of every candidate and determine where he stood in moments of crisis. Did he sit on the fence or did he forthrightly declare his allegiance? We are woefully short of energy. Our coal is of poor quality and the shortage of energy cannot be made good by using coal as a raw material. The government has decided to use nuclear energy to overcome this shortfall, for which we require nuclear fuel.
<b>We have entered into a new relationship with the United States which will release us from commercial boycott by those who alone can sell the fuel to us. The nuclear deal is the only salvation for the nation, though we will have to pay some price for it. The aspirant must be able to tell us whether he supports the nuclear deal or whether he thinks that the deal is an imperial conspiracy to deprive us of our sovereignty, and our government is bent on a sell-out.</b>
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>A Suitable President
By Ram Jethmalani </b>
Within the next couple of months the nation will proceed to elect the successor of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. <b>The sophisticated gentleman that he is, he never canvassed for a second term and unwittingly offended the Left by recommending the installation of two-party democracy in this country.</b>
The coming election raises issues which have been superficially noticed in earlier elections but never seriously addressed by any political party. There is a remote chance we will come up with the right answers this time.
<b>The President may not be the arbiter or final interpreter of the Constitution, but he certainly is a guardian of its spirit and preserver of its unwritten conventions and over-laid traditions. </b>
During the interregnum between the defeat of a government and the installation of a new one, his powers get enlarged to the limits of his statesmanship and the confidence reposed in him by the political sovereign, namely the people of India. <b>His legal powers may not be wide, but his real power rests on his moral stature and the public esteem he enjoys. With a simple nod of disapproval he should be able to bring back a derailed Council of Ministers to the path of rectitude and propriety.</b>
The Constitution did not leave the choice of the President to the majority of members of the Lok Sabha, but to a majority of both Houses and all legislatures in India. The Constitution intended that the President should be the choice of the whole nation and the visible embodiment of its sovereignty.
The Constitution requires a secret ballot for the presidential poll. This ensures perfect freedom of choice which nobody can investigate or question. It certainly excludes the issue of a whip by political parties. The late Mrs Indira Gandhi set up a valuable precedent when President V.V. Giri was elected defeating the partyâs nominee. <b>Leaders of political parties are conducting meetings to find a suitable President. Though this is not an ideal method, yet one cannot cavil at it in a party ridden democracy. One can only hope that they are looking for someone who will bring honour and dignity to the nation.</b>
<b>The first two Presidents, Dr Rajendra Prasad and Dr Radhakrishnan provided clues to presidential qualifications and credentials.</b> The former had been a valiant upholder of Constitutional values, possessed sterling character and towering stature. He was neither politically nor intellectually inferior to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the best PMs that India has produced.
<b>The latter possessed considerable academic and spiritual achievements. The great historian Arnold Toynbee said this about him: "I admire and love the philosopher Dr Radhakrishnan and am delighted to see even the weight of the presidency cannot overwhelm him."
After Indiaâs Chinese debacle and the resignation of Krishna Menon, he took matters in his own hands, and virtually directed foreign policy, advised generals in command, visited forward areas and publicly acknowledged the governmentâs credulity and negligence. Pandit Nehru acquiesced in his dazzling role.</b>
This however does not exhaust our expectations of a President. Those who have taken upon themselves the task of identifying the next President, should have before them an inventory of the major problems that the nation faces. They should next find out whether the potential President has thought about these problems and shared his views and solutions with the people. Moreover, does his public performance lend credence to his pronouncements?
The first and foremost problem that faces us is grinding poverty. <b>Despite government statistics I believe that half the nation lives below the poverty line. Free market economics of the early Nineties may have raised the GDP growth to nine per cent per annum, but the newly created wealth has not gone to the starving millions. </b>
It has not created any insurance against natural disasters and malnutrition-induced diseases and disorders. It has not provided a civilised shelter to the millions who sleep on footpaths and eke out a miserable existence in filthy slums.
It is relevant to enquire whether the aspiring denizen of the Rashtrapati Bhavan has seriously thought of this miserable sector and designed some way of escape for them. Has he ever thought of ways to distribute wealth fairly, control population, eliminate wars, violence and terrorism?
The Constitution proclaims that all citizens irrespective of religion, caste, place of birth, residence are entitled to equality before the law. It recognises at the same time that treating un-equals equally is to practice and perpetuate inequality. It, therefore, took special notice of the majority of our citizens who for centuries had been humiliated, and discriminated against. They are the backward classes including of course the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
Has the aspirant ever concerned himself about their fate? What compensation does he have in mind for them? Where has he stood on the issue of imperative measures to raise them to a level from which they can compete on equal terms with the rest of their fellow beings?
Where did he stand when the enforcement of the Mandal report was being vehemently opposed and debated before the Supreme Court? Did he protest when the Central government decided officially that Mandal would not be enforced in the matter of recruitment for employment under it?
Lastly, where does he stand on the current governmentâs move to give OBCs a slot in our institutions of higher education?
Godhra and its tragic aftermath require another overriding qualification from the aspiring President. Did he condemn the guilty or did he indulge in obfuscations and excuses? The national psyche suffered dangerous wounds. Did the aspirant apply soothing honey or did he use this tragedy to derive cheap electoral benefits?
The President must be a person who owes no loyalty to any political party, who is able to rise above party politics and dispassionately diagnose the disease of the body politic and prescribe the necessary balm. His personality and antecedents must assure completely of his integrity and impartiality and total commitment to national integration. Threatened minorities, unless assured total security and a fair share of the national cake, are bound to turn to violence and even acts of treason.
Those who wish to influence the selection of the next President must examine the record of every candidate and determine where he stood in moments of crisis. Did he sit on the fence or did he forthrightly declare his allegiance? We are woefully short of energy. Our coal is of poor quality and the shortage of energy cannot be made good by using coal as a raw material. The government has decided to use nuclear energy to overcome this shortfall, for which we require nuclear fuel.
<b>We have entered into a new relationship with the United States which will release us from commercial boycott by those who alone can sell the fuel to us. The nuclear deal is the only salvation for the nation, though we will have to pay some price for it. The aspirant must be able to tell us whether he supports the nuclear deal or whether he thinks that the deal is an imperial conspiracy to deprive us of our sovereignty, and our government is bent on a sell-out.</b>
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