Pratibha Patil was elected India’s first woman president by the legislators (ordinary citizens don’t get to vote). But she wasn’t the first choice of the ruling Congress party.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi chose the 72-year-old political veteran only after the leftists (read:
communists) objected to other candidates, said the BBC.
The Congress government can’t ignore the communists.
It’s somewhat like the US relationship with China. Their
economies have become so interdependent neither can ignore the other. From
Apple to Boeing, almost every US multinational uses components made in China.
And both countries gain. China is booming, using some of the dollars earned to buy
US Treasury bonds, while US consumers benefit from the low prices of Chinese
goods.
A similar relationship has sprung up between the Congress
party and the communists. They may jockey for power in some of the Indian states,
just as the US and China have their differences, notably over Taiwan. But they have common interests. The Congress
party has a socialist heritage and under Indira Gandhi was close to the
Soviets.
Now Congress heads a coalition government in Delhi. It could
not form a government on its own, having won only 145 seats in the last general
election in 2004. The Lok Sabha, or the Indian House of Representatives, has
545 seats. The traditionally pro-Beijing Marxists, who won 43 seats, and the
pro-Russian Communist Party of India, which won 10, did not join the coalition
government but support the Congress. They can’t support the nationalist
right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, which won 138 seats.
Congress naturally has to keep its allies happy. And that includes
the communists, who have gained influence disproportionate to their power.
The
communists are strong in only three of the 28 Indian states: Kerala, Tripura
and West Bengal. Yet they have their say on every major issue from education to
the choice of a president.
Congress, of course, has to consult even smaller fry –
regional parties and the like. And it
did not lose anything by choosing Patil as president. After all, she
is a Congress party member and a friend of the Gandhis. Still, if she got the job because the communists
objected to other Congress candidates, then it was no different from the tail wagging the dog.
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