The Presidency is dead...long live the President

I am as sad today as I was happy 5 years ago when I heard about the election of Dr. Kalam as President of India. After a famed reign at the highest office, inspiring a billion countrymen along the way, the aeronautical engineer goes back to the company of students and scholars, far removed from the muddled world of politics that prevented him from a second term. Like a lotus over dirty water, he was never comfortable with politics nor was he tainted by it, but nevertheless he blossomed amidst the politicians. Whether his successor will inspire the country or be swept away in the tides of politics will decide Pratibha Patil's legacy.

Wikipedia describes the POI as "the head of state and first citizen of India and the Supreme Commander of the Indian armed forces. The President's role is largely ceremonial, with real executive authority vested in the Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. The powers of the President of India are comparable to those of the monarch of UK." To paraphrase, the POI is powerless and ceremonial; a rubber stamp of sorts. Why then do we need a President? After all, the qualifications needed to become one are as exploitable as those needed to get into nursery school. All the executive powers of the President that we studied about in 8th grade Civics being the reasons, the primary one is the fact that the President has discretionary powers which give him the ultimate power - to over rule the government on critical issues. So, the ideal candidate should have two important qualities - neutrality and objectivity. One look at the President-elect and I can see neither.

The POI is also the "first citizen" of the country and the face of the country around the globe. Hence the person should have distinguished himself in his chosen field of excellence, be it science, law or public service. A retrospective look at the past Presidents made me feel that most of them fit the description - most of them - be it the brilliant law maker in Dr. Rajendra Prasad (freedom fighter and President of the Constituent Assembly that framed the Constitution of India), the scholastic Dr. Radhakrishnan (of Oxford and Harvard fame), the idealistic S.D Sharma (Harvard Law) or the ultimate diplomat in K.R Narayanan (London School of Economics and Ambassador to the US, UK and China during the difficult NAM days). Along the way, there have been others like Zail Singh, who was more famous for his subservient attitude towards Indira Gandhi than his social reforms in Punjab. But no one brought more honor and elegance to the position than Dr. APJ - the people's president who increased the amplitude of the position and redefined its appositeness. So, who is Pratibha Patil? Is she the equitable doyen or the government's pawn?

For starters, she is a politician, and unlike some of the inspiring names mentioned above she doesn't quite tickle the "I am proud to be an Indian" nerve in your body. Nor has she achieved anything of note apart from being a Congress activist and the Governor of a state, a feat achieved by myriad others. Numerous controversies and allegations preceded her election and the one billion dollar question (one for each person in the country I suppose) is - Why her? Couldn't we find a candidate in the second most populous country in the world, that befitted the position and filled our hearts with pride? The answer is that the politicians didn't bother to find one and thats what makes me sad today.