India had two leaders to be proud of. Now we will be left
with only one: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. President APJ Abdul Kalam will be stepping down this
month. It’s sad we will be losing a
person of his stature. An eminent scientist comfortable on the Internet, he
represented modern India and its technological progress more than any
professional politician.
Unfortunately, he is
no longer wanted by the politicians who alone elect the president.
A politician will once again occupy the presidential palace,
Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The ruling Congress party’s nominee, Pratibha Patil, who is
widely expected to be elected, will have the distinction of being the first
woman president. But what’s even more remarkable about her is her facelessness:
despite 45 years in politics, she is hardly a household name.
She has enjoyed
her rewards though as a friend of the Gandhis and served as governor of
Rajasthan and deputy chairman of the Upper House of the Indian parliament. It’s
no mean feat — enjoying power and privilege in relative privacy in an open democracy.
She can’t be enjoying all the attention now as some of the
remarks are distinctly unkind. I won’t repeat the allegations against her,
which appeared even in the New York Times yesterday.
She has opened herself to
ridicule too by saying on live television that a dead guru had spoken to her
through a living disciple about her impending rise to power. Ah well, we had a prime minister (Morarji
Desai) who drank his own urine for health reasons. What’s wrong with a
president who chats with the dead?
If that sounds loony,
ask evolutionists what they think of creationists. Yet there are creationists
who are quite sensible people.
I am sure Pratibha Patil will make a decent president or she
would have not been considered for the job. But she will never be an Abdul
Kalam. It’s unfortunate that politicians didn’t give him a second term.
Why is
it all right for politicians to seek re-election but not for the president?
Only the first Indian president, Rajendra Prasad, was re-elected, but that was
because he was a powerful politician. Not so his successors who included
illustrious scholars like Radhakrishnan and Indira Gandhi’s yes-men.
There is no law that says a president can’t be re-elected. A
television opinion poll showed Kalam would have been the popular choice. But the
politicians decided otherwise. The Hindustan Times ran an article headlined “Why
political parties do not want Kalam”. He lacks political understanding, claimed
several worthies.
Even the communists and the Hindu communalist, right-wing
Shiv Sena were united on this. Kalam had to go, they
said. Their bizarre agreement on this reminded me of the Hitler-Stalin pact –
and raised Kalam even higher in my opinion.
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