INDIA'S PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE - PRATIBHA PATIL - WHO???
"I Know Her Husband" says A.B. Bardhan, CPI boss.....
By Manuwant Choudhary
India's next President could be Pratibha Patil. Pratibha Patil, WHO? Thats how most reacted to the Congress Party's announcement of their nominee.
Most except the Indian Communists. What then happened to the Congress Party's original nominees Dr. Karan Singh and Shivraj Patil? Well, the Communists didn't like the UPA nominees?
But are the Communists in the UPA? No, they are just giving outside support.
Then why should they decide who the UPA nominee should be?
Congress says left support to any candidate is critical. But UPA itself was not consulted on the Presidential nominee and as Congressmen tell the media even they were not consulted. "Madam Soniaji decided the two names and when the Communists rejected them then Dr. Manmohan Singh announced Pratibha Patil's name and the Communists accepted." Why? "Beacuse Pratibha Patil is a woman....."
One Congressman defends the decision, "In 60 years India has not had a woman President."
Sure, but whose fault is that? You have `mis' ruled this great country for most of the past 60 years.
And CPI leader A.B. Bardhan took the defense to its limits, "I know her husband."
Sure, Mr. Bardhan I think you know other famous husbands as well. We think you know Shri Laloo Prasad better. So shouldn't Rabri Devi be India's next President?
Imagine, Laloo living in an outhouse of the Rashtrapati Bhawan and his cows grazing blissfully in the Mughal Gardens!
Forget Rabri, even Brinda Karat could be President...That reminds me when did the Indian Communists start championing women representation issues? In its entire history the CPI (M) did not have a woman as a politburo member. And Brinda Karat is the wife of Prakash Karat, the CPI (M) boss.
Even Outlook Editor Vinod Mehta tries his eloquence, "After all she has been MLA for four terms, minister several times and now she is the Governor of Rajasthan...so give her a chance...she can have a good set of advisors.she is loyal to the Nehru-Gandhi family!"
Mr. Mehta the politicians talk of 33 per cent representation for women in parliament without giving even 20 per cent tickets to women candidates in their own parties.
But why Pratibha Patil...we think Priyanka Vadra Gandhi could be a better choice!
So is there no criteria to select a nominee for India's topmost job? This time events indicate that the parties have lost their way.... only an invisible hand can save this country.
2 comments:
Another way of looking at the issue of electing India's next President, would be to say that we have truly achieved equality in India, so that almost anybody can be the President - first among equals!
More seriously, the issue we need to consider, since the three political combinations have quite cynically proposed three names as possible President, is to look more closely at the issue of cross-voting. Because that is what everyone is counting on / fearful of. And this provides an opportunity to discuss the basic premise under cross-voting, and anti-defection law in a parliamentary democracy. This is quite apart from the fact that Indira Gandhi had deliberately instigated cross-voting to defeat the official Congress Presidential nominee N Sanjeeva Reddy, and we had got VV Giri in 1969.
Nothing really surprises me in the great Indian democracy! see the new book by Arun Shourie, Parliamentary System. We need more fundamental reforms of the electoral system--that is the underlying disease, these are just the symptoms.
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