Shall we tell the president?
We are nearing the end of current term of the president of India. Now the time has come to 'choose' the next president. Who will be the next president? is the hot topic now. Instead of getting into speculative mode and guessing who will be, shall we say who should be the next president?
The incumbent, Shri. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has been a favourite president amongst the public for being dynamic, less-controversial (including not being a 'rubber stamp' in all the occassions) person. Infact after Shri. Radhakrishnan, he is seen as a visionary president of India across the globe. Shri Abdul Kalam (APJ), having gained good name since Pokhran II, easily cruised through the presidency race, thanks to the diplomacy of the then PM Shri Vajpayee. Though the final race for APJ was smooth the initial environment was not that smooth & clear. Much like the current uncertainty on the new candidate uncertainty prevailed that time too. The main reason for this uncertainty is a weak government. The ruling party then, NDA/BJP, did not enjoy full majority to select its candiate easily, much like today's ruling party UPA/Congress. The NDA first mooted another good candidate, Shri. P.C. Alexander (PCA), the then governor of Maharastra, for the post. He too was a good candidate for the post. But the government, especially the PM, was very much aware of the political dynamics that would play in electing PCA. For some reasons unknown to us the Congress high command was not in the mood of supporting PCA for the post, infact it was dead against electing PCA. This, Vajpayee very well knew and still promoted his candidature in round one. In parallel, through his wings, discreetly, opinion & support were cultivated amongst the public and other parties (except the national parties), through the media, about the goodness of selecting APJ. APJ was indeed the trump card and liked candidate of Vajpayee (this doesn't mean PCA was not). This is much different from the prevailing opinion amongst the media that the NDA could not promote its candidate and had to finally toe in line with other parties and public opinion and reconciled to choose APJ and used it wrongly to show off its non-existing 'secular' credential. It is naive to think so, as the candidate the NDA/BJP was promoting then, PCA, was a christian. So this secular creditial claim if frivolous. What actually happened is the unwillingness of the congress in supporting PCA made it to toe to the line of reconciling in supporting APJ. The congress could not promote any of its liked candidates due to lack of numbers. The only other national party (ofcourse on paper), the CPM, performed a clown act, promoted lakshmi rai, in vain, as a candidate against APJ merely to oppose whatever is done by NDA/BJP. Rest is history.
Now APJ has become another PCA for congress. The congress high command is unwilling to support APJ's re-election for reasons that are not that much unclear as it was the case with PCA. This time too the NDA/BJP is supporting APJ and it is infact urging APJ to announce his willingness to contest for the second term.
However the real danger lies in another proposed candidature. This candidate is the sitting chair person of LokSabha. His name is Somanath Chaterjee. By profession he is a lawyer. So, by virtue of it, he proved to be not a no-nonsense fellow. It was exhibited during his earlier tenures as a mere MP and in current tenure in the capacity of LS Speaker. He has earned the name of noisy loud speaker by inviting many controversies like being partisan, now and then rubbing his wrong side against the judiciary et al.
Now the nation has stepped into a crucial juncture, for yet another time. In near future, in Indian judiciary history, we are going to see some landmark judgment on quota, and other constitutionally important cases. Having a known nonsense in the helm of affair at the top post would create a lot of problem for the administration, judiciary as well as the legislation. Though, the CPM might try to hand twist the congress (UPA) to support Somanath's candidature. However the point of solace here is that it is doubtful whether the CPM politburo would be that much serious in pushing somanath's candidature, and the congress though has tactically aligned with the CPM, knows very well the consequences in not having its candidate selected and worse having CPM's candidature selected to the post.
So the congress, for the first round, is now promoting Shri Karan Singh. Karan Singh is less nonsense fellow and known more for his diplomacy. It was he who became a confident of PM Manmohan Singh to talk to Gyanendra when things in Nepal went out of control and India had to quickly do some PR exercise to both calm Nepal as well as save its(India's) face in the region. Thanks to the then foreign minister Natwar Singh, we had screwed up all our levers in Nepal and were losing our face drastically. Karan Singh more-or-less was successful in save india's face act. So it will not be a bad choice in choosing him as president should that turns out to be the final choice.
Ofcourse, we did not dwell upon the act of promoting Amitabh Bachchan et al. We are here to talk about serious business. Let us shun comical acts provided in this election drama.
We have told who should be the president, we shall see who will be the president, in a few months to come.
The incumbent, Shri. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, has been a favourite president amongst the public for being dynamic, less-controversial (including not being a 'rubber stamp' in all the occassions) person. Infact after Shri. Radhakrishnan, he is seen as a visionary president of India across the globe. Shri Abdul Kalam (APJ), having gained good name since Pokhran II, easily cruised through the presidency race, thanks to the diplomacy of the then PM Shri Vajpayee. Though the final race for APJ was smooth the initial environment was not that smooth & clear. Much like the current uncertainty on the new candidate uncertainty prevailed that time too. The main reason for this uncertainty is a weak government. The ruling party then, NDA/BJP, did not enjoy full majority to select its candiate easily, much like today's ruling party UPA/Congress. The NDA first mooted another good candidate, Shri. P.C. Alexander (PCA), the then governor of Maharastra, for the post. He too was a good candidate for the post. But the government, especially the PM, was very much aware of the political dynamics that would play in electing PCA. For some reasons unknown to us the Congress high command was not in the mood of supporting PCA for the post, infact it was dead against electing PCA. This, Vajpayee very well knew and still promoted his candidature in round one. In parallel, through his wings, discreetly, opinion & support were cultivated amongst the public and other parties (except the national parties), through the media, about the goodness of selecting APJ. APJ was indeed the trump card and liked candidate of Vajpayee (this doesn't mean PCA was not). This is much different from the prevailing opinion amongst the media that the NDA could not promote its candidate and had to finally toe in line with other parties and public opinion and reconciled to choose APJ and used it wrongly to show off its non-existing 'secular' credential. It is naive to think so, as the candidate the NDA/BJP was promoting then, PCA, was a christian. So this secular creditial claim if frivolous. What actually happened is the unwillingness of the congress in supporting PCA made it to toe to the line of reconciling in supporting APJ. The congress could not promote any of its liked candidates due to lack of numbers. The only other national party (ofcourse on paper), the CPM, performed a clown act, promoted lakshmi rai, in vain, as a candidate against APJ merely to oppose whatever is done by NDA/BJP. Rest is history.
Now APJ has become another PCA for congress. The congress high command is unwilling to support APJ's re-election for reasons that are not that much unclear as it was the case with PCA. This time too the NDA/BJP is supporting APJ and it is infact urging APJ to announce his willingness to contest for the second term.
However the real danger lies in another proposed candidature. This candidate is the sitting chair person of LokSabha. His name is Somanath Chaterjee. By profession he is a lawyer. So, by virtue of it, he proved to be not a no-nonsense fellow. It was exhibited during his earlier tenures as a mere MP and in current tenure in the capacity of LS Speaker. He has earned the name of noisy loud speaker by inviting many controversies like being partisan, now and then rubbing his wrong side against the judiciary et al.
Now the nation has stepped into a crucial juncture, for yet another time. In near future, in Indian judiciary history, we are going to see some landmark judgment on quota, and other constitutionally important cases. Having a known nonsense in the helm of affair at the top post would create a lot of problem for the administration, judiciary as well as the legislation. Though, the CPM might try to hand twist the congress (UPA) to support Somanath's candidature. However the point of solace here is that it is doubtful whether the CPM politburo would be that much serious in pushing somanath's candidature, and the congress though has tactically aligned with the CPM, knows very well the consequences in not having its candidate selected and worse having CPM's candidature selected to the post.
So the congress, for the first round, is now promoting Shri Karan Singh. Karan Singh is less nonsense fellow and known more for his diplomacy. It was he who became a confident of PM Manmohan Singh to talk to Gyanendra when things in Nepal went out of control and India had to quickly do some PR exercise to both calm Nepal as well as save its(India's) face in the region. Thanks to the then foreign minister Natwar Singh, we had screwed up all our levers in Nepal and were losing our face drastically. Karan Singh more-or-less was successful in save india's face act. So it will not be a bad choice in choosing him as president should that turns out to be the final choice.
Ofcourse, we did not dwell upon the act of promoting Amitabh Bachchan et al. We are here to talk about serious business. Let us shun comical acts provided in this election drama.
We have told who should be the president, we shall see who will be the president, in a few months to come.
posted by Kupps at 5:01 AM
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