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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Media Watch - M.V. Kamath

Defining the President’s office

M.V. KAMATH | Friday, June 29, 2007 12:2:27 IST
The office of the President shouldn’t be politicised, it is India’s most respected post

   


No matter who ultimately will become a five-year resident of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the election process is getting messier by the day. What is interesting and no less significant is that A. P. J. Kalam seems to be the darling of the people. And that has nothing to do with the Third Front choosing him as their candidate for the Presidents’ office. Some time in mid-May a poll was conducted by ibn-live.com in collaboration with The Indian Express and Lokasatta with more than 3.4 lakh citizens logging in. the results speak a lot about Kalam’s popularity among the masses. Of the total votes cast – around 3,33,995 – as many as 1,44,140 or 43.16 percent voted for Kalam. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat won 98,318 votes or 28.44 percent. Even N. R. Narayanamurthy won 62,767 votes or 18.79 percent. The rest including Somnath Chatterjee (3.2 percent), Sushil Kumar Shinde (2.09 percent), Pranab Mukherjee (1.3 percent) and Karan Singh (0.58 percent) can be forgotten. One suspects that now another private poll may have to be taken to see where Pratibha Devisingh Patil Shekhawat stands.

Patils’ credentials
<b>Though, she is Shekhawat by marriage, no one has asked why she has preferred to be known strictly as Pratibha Patil or as Pratibhatai to many Maharashtrians, and not as Mrs. Shekhawat.</b> The Congress had first chosen Pranab Mukherjee, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Karan Singh as likely candidates. With the Left Front, as usual, dictating terms, Pratibha Patil came to the fore as a surprise candidate; in the circumstances the Congress is only betraying its loose character when it seeks to damn the BJP by saying that the latter “does not have political grace, social commitment or the moral fiber to support Pratibha’s candidature.”
The Congress must be taught how to use words. <b>But Pratibha Patil has become acceptable, howsoever unwillingly, to some sections of the media.</b> <b>The Deccan Herald</b> has chided the Congress for its’ about – turn saying that while “elimination of candidates in the selection process is natural, branding candidates in unfair ways should have been avoided by the parties.” As for Congress’s choice of Pratibha Patil, the paper said that “it will truly be a historic moment” adding “that a woman candidate with considerable experience in public life is poised to became the head of the state should indeed be a matter of pride and satisfaction, more so since even many western countries with much longer history of democracy and women’s empowerment are yet to have a women occupy the top elective post.” <b>The Hindu’s</b> edition of June 16 said that Patil’s candidature “is very difficult to fault” and that “the fact that a woman is likely to occupy the highest office in the land is matter of pride for the country.” In a long editorial the paper concluded by saying, “In the absence of a new development or massive cross-voting, Ms. Patil’s election as President is certainty. She may have a low profile but her background in politics and social work would suggest she is the right symbol of the idea of the Indian state – one that is liberal, secular and progressive”. <b>The Hitavada </b>was not that ecstatic. “The zeroing in on the name of Ms. Pratibha Patil,” it said, “as the consensus last-minute candidate of the UPA against the candidature of the present vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat… as an independent backed by the NDA indicates that the office of President of India is being turned into merely a political office.” It further pointed out that “there is also no denying the fact that involvement of too many political considerations may affect the apolitical status of the President’s office.”

Defining the Presidential role

The <b>Indian Express</b> dated June 16, speaking in praise of President Kalam said “even the most skeptical assessments of President <b>Abdul Kalam’s term will have to admit that he did refashion the Presidency in a way that attracted popular interest,” and that “if he so chooses, he can successfully claim that he brought the grand imperial building in New Delhi back into mass national consciousness.” The paper added, “He has given the institution of the Presidency a character, some distinctiveness, perhaps even some flair… in part by making his office a source of, and a host to, idealism.”</b> <b>The Times of India’s </b>edition dated June 16 asked; “Why Pratibha Patil?” and answered its own question. It said: “Her choice is a compromise forced by the complex factors that shape political practice in India… <b>The search for a loyalist – meaning to the Gandhi family – is not a mere reflection of the absence of inner-party democracy in Congress, but also another indication of the decline of the party’s nation-wide clout</b>” – not a flattering comment, but it made up for that by adding: “The symbolism of a woman becoming the common candidate of a wide spectrum of political parties is not lost in a country where women are heavily discriminated against socially.” Not exactly a very flattering tribute to either the Congress or to Ms. Patil. Piously, the paper concluded by saying that the Rashtrapathi Bhavan having been once home to remarkable educationist like Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain and K. R. Narayanan, “let us hope that Patil will join their ranks.” <b>Saamna, the Marathi paper edited by Bal Thackeray, the Shiv Sena Chief, openly opposed the candidature of Union Home Minister Shivajirao Patil wishing to know ‘what good’ he has done for the Marathi people. But in the case of Pratibha Patil, the paper described her two qualifications; that she is a ‘Maharashtrian’ and a woman too.</b> Incidentally, <b>a distinguished Marathi editor, Kumar Ketkar, writing in The Indian Express of June 16 made the point that “hardly anyone knew that she (Pratibha Patil) was married to Devisingh Shekhawat and therefore has a Rajasthani background” and “had not changed her name to Pratibha Shekhawat.”
Ketkar, too, had precious little praise to give to Shivraj Patil who he described as “a loner and has generally remained loyal to Indira-Rajiv-Sonia”, something that is common between him and Pratibhatai. Ketkar also warned against anyone mistaking ‘Patil’ for a Maharashrian because it is a surname common among many castes, with Shivraj Patil being a Lingayat and Pratibhatai herself a Rajput- Maratha.</b> So much for our still caste-ridden and ethnic-conscious politicians. The ultimate question will be whether Pratibha Patil will win because she is a woman or because she is qualified to win. <b>Also much will depend upon various forces that are presently beyond one’s reckoning with many genuinely expressing fears of cross-party voting that could affect the final results. There are quite a few who are keeping their fingers crossed.</b>

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