Lining up for Prez
pranabda may opt out
India will select the
first citizen of the country in July. And, the heat and dust has begun.
All the major political parties want a say in selecting the next
resident of Rashtrapati Bhavan. If insiders are to be believed, the
Congress has decided that there will be no elevation for the
Vice-President and no repetition of past and present Presidents (read
Kalam and Patil ). Mamata Banerjee too is reluctant to elevate
Vice-President Hamid Ansari. This does clear the mists for the
wannabees. Many new contenders have emerged in the last three months.
Leading the race are NRI entrepreneur and Rahul Gandhi advisor Sam
Pitroda, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson and former West Bengal governor Gopal
Gandhi, Infosys Chairman Emeritus NR Narayana Murthy, India’s self
claimed reformer ex-President APJ Abdul Kalam, Congress stalwart Pranab
Mukherjee, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and former Madhya Pradesh chief
minister Motilal Vora. There are one or two more names but they are not
in the reckoning. Insiders inform that Pranabda will exit from the race
by issuing a statement that he clearly cannot be spared from the
Cabinet and the party needs him at this juncture. There’s also another
aspect to the race for President. Some so-called political preachers are
demanding that the President of India should be apolitical. The
question we would like to ask them is: If the President, Vice-President
and Prime Minister (at present all don’t face the electorate directly)
are apolitical, then why should they build a political career at all?
This does not sound politically correct! g
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