In our discussion as to who should be the next President of India, we raised a question: when will we have a woman President in India? With the nomination of Pratibha Patil Shekhawat as the UPA candidate for President and with BSP supremo Mayawati and Left Parties agreeing to the nomination, it seems that the next President of India will indeed be a woman. We also mentioned that such are the vagaries of Indian politics, it would not be a surprise if the next President was not in the list of 8 candidates we polled for.
Pratibha Patil is all set to become India’s first woman President. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi declared Patil as UPA’s nominee for India’s highest post on Thursday evening.
The Congress revealed this ace up its sleeve when Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh realised that big names were not finding acceptance across the board.
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had run into trouble because the Left said he lacked stature, Congress wasn’t sure if BSP supremo Mayawati would approve of a Dalit leader like Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, was indispensable to the party. [IBN Live]
It is ironic that the nominee is chosen on the basis of ‘least unacceptable’ rather than ‘most acceptable’ to all the parties. APJ Abdul Kalam was such a consensus choice last time and Pratibha Patil has been selected with the same criteria. Being a non-controversial politician who has been away from active politics for sometime, Patil can drum up support even among the unlikeliest of constituencies like Shiv Sena.
Who Loses Out?
With the nomination of one Patil, it seems the other Patil (Shivraj) loses out his best shot at being the President of India. Till yesterday he was being touted as the favorite candidate with newschannels even preparing catchy headlines to announce his impending candidacy. But Sonia Gandhi (she is turning into a wily Indian politician) surprised all by nominating Pratibha Patil. Now, no party can afford to oppose her candidature without being seen as anti-woman. Meanwhile, poor Indians will continue being subjected to ineffective handling of Home Affairs by Shivraj Patil. May be he should be made the Vice President just to have him hand over the ministership to somebody else. Another person who loses out is Mohsina Kidwai who was being projected as the Vice Presidential candidate of UPA. She had twin qualifications of being a Muslim and a woman. However, with Pratibha Patil being chosen as the Presidential candidate, Kidwai’s hopes have been dashed. NDA also loses out in the sense that it would have been easier for them to contest against a regular politician like Pranab Mukherjee or Shivraj Patil on ideological grounds but the same argument does not holds good against Pratibha Patil.
Shekhawat Versus Shekhawat
However, the contest for the post seems imminent as NDA has rebuffed Sonia Gandhi’s call for support for Patil. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat will be fielded as an independent candidate with NDA supporting his candidature. The idea is that it will allow him to garner support from other political parties not part of NDA. However, Shekhawat, who has been associated with Sangh Parivar all his life, it will be very difficult to shed the saffron robes. Also, even though he has friends in other parties, Indian polity is woefully short of individuals voting against the party diktat. So much so, it will be difficult for him to even get Samajwadi Party (SP) to support him. Incidentally, Pratibha got married to Devisingh Ramsingh Shekhawat and now carries the same surname as Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. As rediff.com put it succintly, the next President of India will be a Shekhawat. Male or female, we will get to know soon.
Pratibha Patil Image: Jaisingh Rathore via Wikipedia
I am not happy with this choice of Presidential candidate and not because she is a woman. I would be delighted if we have a woman President, but more so if it were somebody who had earned that position. Somebody who was there because of her merit and not because of how loyal she has been to The Family in her political history.
We are probably back to the era of supplicant Presidents, if indications are correct. I hope it is not true, but her profile is not very different from that of Giani Zail Singh, who once famously said that he would happily sweep the floor for Madam if asked to do so (nothing wrong with sweeping floors – I do it all the time – but the expression was meant to suggest that he would be her slave and supplicant).
I hope Pratibha Patil, who is most likely our next President, lives up to the standards set by Kalam in his Presidency and does some good while enjoying her retirement in Rashtrapati Bhavan (actually she was in retirement in the Jaipur Raj Bhavan before this and did nothing earthshaking there, so not too many hopes of that changing now). Good luck to her in any case.
So here goes the surprise package.
Pratibha Patil is almost certain to be the next President of India based on the number game.
I agree with Girish here that her candidature is a certificate to her loyalty than her own personality. I personally dont feel that she carries a personality to represent India in front of the other Dynamic Leaders of the World.
She doesnt have the Charisma and I dont think that she would be dynamic, Sonia played her cards well by selecting a woman Candidate but she fails in nominating the best for India.
A country of ambitions of becoming super-power has weak PM and now it will have weak President as well.
PM who can not win a Lok Sabha election and have to come through the back door entry of Rajya Sabha.
Only thing that Pratibha Patil has done in her political career was to refuse to sign the anti-conversion bill of Rajasthan.
Depressing times. What a joke. Sonia amma has acquired skills that her mother in law could boast of. Puppets in place, we can wait for the Chosen One – Rahul – to ascend to the throne soon. (can’t stop my drool).
What a shame. This is again dangerous times for India’s democracy. A person we know practically nothing about is ruling the country de facto by placing puppets everywhere. makes me sick. what makes me sick is that we must be deserving it.
I understand and agree to an extent the sense of disillusionment felt by fellow Indians here on the nomination of Pratibha Patil as a Presidential candidate for UPA. Now the onus is on her to come out of the shadows and stamp her mark on Indian polity. It is for her to decide how she would want to be remembered: Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed or APJ Abdul Kalam.
Kumar Ketkar in a wonderful piece in IE captures the personality of Pratibha Patil quite well:
“Now the onus is on her to come out of the shadows and stamp her mark on Indian polity”
Mohib,
She did come out of shadows yesterday by claiming to hear spirit at mount abu.
its doesn’t matter that candidate should be male or female.it must be consider that candidate should be able for the post.
i think pratibha patil doesn’t has desired ability to hold that post. she might be represent sonia gandhi in rashtrapati bhawan.
some leader soughting that this move will empower indian women (great joke).
there will no such changes in scinario of indian women after faulty change in rashtrapati bhawan.there will only change that Mrs. sonia gandhi will recognize as “super president of Inian Republic as well as super prime minister”.
wonderful
some beautiful polititions are trying 2 make our beautiful country handycapt.