Much Ado About Nothing, er, President


The post of President of India is supposed to be a symbolic one. Devoid of any real powers, the only time the President gets any coverage is if there is a hung Parliament and he gets to decide whom to give first shot at forming a government. Or so I thought. I should have known better: if that were indeed true, why do we need a Vice-President? I mean, if the post is powerless, why do we need a fallback guy for that role?

Pratibha Patel showed that the Presidents can get rides on fighter jets and demand exorbitant sums for “renovating” her house post-retirement. All at tax payers’ expense, of course.

And now we had the circus of who will be the next President? Pranab Mukehrjee? Some nutjob that Mamata would support? And the drama got lots of coverage in the news. Like anyone should even care. Get real: when was the last time you heard of the President make any decision that made the slightest difference to anything in the country? And yet the news channels covered it as if this was the most important decision to make!

Usually, the President’s post is given to a (Congress) party loyalist. By that token, Mamata was right: Manmohan was the right choice. He would have given way to Rahul baba the day he was asked to. He allowed every scam to happen under his nose. Surely, he “deserved” to be the Congress party’s choice for President…

Comments

  1. KumarJune 19, 2012 at 9:27 AM

    Your logic is impeccable!

    While Manmohan would be the correct choice for Congress, knowing that he most effectively served as the clean carpet under which all mucks emanating from all the scams and scandals can be swept. Making him the President would be the appropriate thanksgiving to him by the party.

    But then, would that not lead to the situation that for the first time India made a Prime Minister also the President? Wouldn't that be too much of favor showered onto any politician? Is Manmohan not once-a-good-administrator now an-ordinary-politician? He doesn't deserve? In fact it is time for him to sit at home, recline in his chair and keep reading something uninteresting.

    Since we hardly have any statesmen today, it is OK to have anyone (other than Manmohan of course) so far as he/she may not stoop as low as Pratibha. Pranab, for all his failings and limitations, is not too bad. He will not stoop as low as Pratibha (even if he tries) because who can compete with someone whose aim, throughout the time of living in the grand Rashtrapati Bhawan, was only to set an all-time record in stooping to the most undignified level? She is the first President to have surrendered her big loot - a vast land that originally belonged to the government (i.e. armed forces) and allotted to her for the payment of some 5 rupees or so :-). She returned that only because the exposure was turning too embarrassing for the nation to be swept under any carpet, even the big one - our dear Prime Minister! :-)

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