Indian Presidential Race – 2007

This year has probably witnessed the most publicised presidential election in Indian history. Since when did the post of India’s first citizen, commonly referred to as a rubber stamp, become such a desired and keenly contested position. Before we look at each of the presidential candidates, we would love to discover the factors that made the entire nation get so very involved in the presidential race. Apart from the ever increasing number of media channels who have played their part by providing extensive coverage to the presidential race coming up with sms polls and all other spices to cook up some hot news, in my opinion it was the persona of our present President, A P J Abdul Kalam that made the entire nation stand up and take notice of the Presidential office. Abdul Kalam truly redefined the standards of morality and stature expected from the President of the nation. The two qualities that made him a great president were:

¾ Coming from a non political background he was free from any political affiliations which allowed him to maintain a neutral/unbiased stance on quite a few hazy recommendations of the ruling party.

¾ Having excelled in his chosen field, his stature as a person deserving to hold the highest office could not be doubted.Long after Rajendra Prasad and Radhakrsihnana, in the form of Abdul Kalam we had a president whose speeches we loved to hear, whose articles/books we loved to read. The entire middle/educated class has begun to associate the office of president with a sense of morality, a sense of pride and we just can’t see it being passed on to any “non deserving”’ candidate. Prathiba Patil, who in all likelihood is slated to become the first women president of India, somehow quite perfectly plays the part of that non deserving candidate. Having emerged as the only congress candidate that was acceptable to the left front, her candidature has received a resounding criticism from all directions, let’s look into the reasons why:

¾ Even if we accept a candidate with a political background for the post of president, does she simply have the stature by virtue of her political career to deserve the first citizenship? She might have been an active congress leader in the state politics of Maharastra, but I am really sorry to say she has never figured in the national level politics. Precisely for that very reason she wasn’t the 1st or the 2nd or the 3rd choice of even her own party.

¾ Once again it is highlighted that if Congress is in power the biggest plus on your job resume is the “loyalty to the family”. By giving such undeserving candidates a chance to hold offices that they had never dreamt of, Congress, read as Sonia, has ensured that these candidates remain indebted to Congress for life, and thus work to appease the Gandhi’s rather than do justice to their office.

¾ Some people in this country are going gaga over her candidature as a symbol of women empowerment. First of all this symbolism need to be removed form Indian politics, because this symbolism translates the truly deserving candidature of Abdul Kalam as a sign of Muslim/Secular victory and at the same time divert the attention of the country from a undeserving candidature of Prathiba Patil’s to a sign of women empowerment. Secondly the fans of women power need to realise that women empowerment is in a lady rising to the stature of becoming the Indian president, and not in an undeserving candidate being skyrocketed to the forefront by manipulating politicians, most of whom are men. In my opinion if this is how women empowerment is to be understood then Laloo Prasad Yadav practised it way back when he promoted his wife to the rank of CM in Bihar. I would be much happier if Medha Patkar, Indra Nooyi, Sonia Gandhi, Kalpana Morparia were to be projected as successes of women empowerment rather than Prathibha Patil.

¾ To top it all we have all these cases of default and criminal charges appearing against her in the 11^th hour, putting even the morality issue in doubt. I would give her the benefit of the doubt and fully agree that these allegations, probably dug out by media and the opposition, are nothing till they are proved in the court. But once again, for me this entire saga of allegations brings her personality/stature more in doubt then her morality. Ever since these allegations have come out, we haven’t heard a single statement of defence form the lady herself, it seems the entire Congress party realises the need to protect, actually overprotect, their symbol of women empowerment.

And then the most unexpected happens, just a few days before the filing of nominations we hear that the name of Abdul Kalam is back in the contention. The third front representatives in the form of Mulayam and Amar Singh have managed to convince Abdul Kalam to contest for a second term. Although this latest development brought about an air of joy but it hardly made any sense as the numbers were always tilted in the favour of UPA+Left combine. Indeed this development had two seriously negative impacts:

¾ It undermined the non political image of Abdul Kalam, by exposing a political ambition, an inherent desire to continue in the President’s office even at the cost of getting into a dirty political battle. Although political fight is not something to be feared of and we must respect Abdul Kalam’s decision to venture into it, although temporarily, but there is no denying that this saga has tarnished his non political image and undermined his greatest virtue of being a candidate with no political ambitions.

¾ It made Mr Bharov Singh Shevkhavat, the vice President appear merely as a gap filler. He was NDA’s candidate, then he wasn’t and now again he is. Personally I never liked his candidature, as it is inconsistent with my opinion of having a non political person at the helm of Presidential office but at the same time there is no denial that based on his political career he is more deserving a candidate then Prathibha Patil

Well all this should be over very soon, and we shall see the first women President of India. This statement just highlights the powerlessness of an average Indian citizen in influencing the race, and brings us to a bigger question, should an average citizen have a say in electing the highest constitutional power of the democracy? For the benefit of those who still do not understand the complex algorithm of electoral college I would just like to give a brief summary. The Electoral College comprises of the elected members of state legislative assembly and both the houses of Parliament. The strength of a MLA vote is :

= Population of the State(in ‘000)/Number of elected members in the sate assembly

Thus in Sikkim the value of an MLA’s vote is just 7, while in Uttar Pradesh the value is 208.Similarly the strength of a MP vote is:

= Total number of votes assigned to the elected members of the State Assemblies/Total number of elected members of both Houses of the Parliament

Thus a MP has much higher number of votes than a MLA. The total value of the votes of all members of Parliament is 5,49,408 and that of the state assemblies is 5,49,474, the total value of the votes of 4896 members of the electoral college coming to 10,98,882. On the basis of the above calculations this time MLAs of the UPA and Left parties have 5, 17,369 votes, which when combined with the Mayawati’s BSP add up to the majority mark.

No wonder at this moment the entire nation seems to be voicing this opinion of direct presidential election or some form of public participation in the election. I would like to present a few points which should help people realise why this is not such a great idea.

¾ The Cash Involved: Direct presidential election would affect the finances at two ends, firstly it would lead to one more additional burden on the taxpayer and secondly it would involve huge amounts of campaign expenditure by the candidates who would therefore look for ways to recover that cost once they make it to the president’s office. Would it be justified for the government to undertake this additional expenditure for electing a candidate that has very few vital functions to perform?

¾ It would lead to the development of 2 power centres which is never a good idea for any state or organisation. A president elected by the people would assume greater political strength and would like to have his share of involvement in the process of decision making, which as per the Indian constitution is a domain of the Prime Minister and his cabinet.

Thus I believe given the current structure of the Indian constitution the best practise for presidential election can be achieved by incorporating a couple of changes

¾ Firstly the parties should not instruct their MLAs and MPs to vote for a particular candidate, instead allowing them to go for a conscience vote. This would ensure that the stature and not the number games determine the success of a Presidential Candidate. Constitutionally there is no whip issued by the party to its legislatives, it’s just that conscience vote is not a practise at the moment and needs to be publicised and advocated.

¾ Secondly all political parties should realise that they could very well be playing the role of opposition tomorrow and how much would they prefer to have a neutral president with no political bias at that pointing time. This would help them understand the importance of non political candidates and thus back such candidates. The changes that I have talked about require no constitutional amendment and are very much implementable for all practical reasons. But till the time the above mentioned changes are absorbed by the political parties and practised by their legislatives we as citizens of India can voice these opinions and ensure that next time onwards we elect representatives who are open minded to listen understand evaluate and bring about such positive changes. Jai Hind!

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