Pratibha Patil, The Precedent

There is, on the other hand, a ring of apology you do not usually expect of Congressmen, particularly when they are in power: ab jo hua, so hua (what has happened has happened), why complicate things; for better or worse, she will be the next president, so why encourage controversies? Or, the most honest of all, it was such a hurried, last minute choice, boss. Give her time and be patient, she is an experienced politician, she will make a pretty good president.

Now, when was the last time you heard that about a presidential certainty? Sure, there were choices in the past you heard doubts about. Giani Zail Singh, but you know the political value of that choice in the Bhindranwale phase. A total non-politician like Kalam, but he already had near iconic status as a scientist and, once again, the symbolism of that choice in the wake of Gujarat was not lost on anybody. But when was the last time you were presented with a complete unknown as your next president? Kalam, Zail Singh, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, V.V. Giri, Sanjeeva Reddy were all people you had seen long enough in public life, so you were unlikely to discover any surprises about them. This is where the Congress went wrong with Pratibha Patil.

THE Congress’s guilt is not so much about who they chose for the job as it is about how it trivialised that job, to begin with. From day one, you knew, it did not have a candidate in mind, except that it wouldn’t give Kalam a second term and won’t accept Shekhawat, however much he may have been respected for his non-partisan handling of the Upper House. The party then saw a truly embarrassing spectacle of so many of its senior leaders canvassing for the top job, almost standing outside Left leaders’ homes with their CVs. And when all its chosen candidates had been rejected by the Left, after its home minister had been publicly humiliated and his secular commitment questioned, it produced Pratibha Patil.

You have to first decide what the presidency is all about. Is it about political experience? Is it about respect? Or, put another way, is it merely a ceremonial office, or is it an important political office? It cannot be both and that is one more reason the Congress sounds so unconvincing — and unconvinced. If they use the argument, why are you getting so excited, it is after all merely a ceremonial sinecure, you ask, then why the insistence on a candidate with ‘political background’? If the argument is that it is an important political office needing a politician, then why a lightweight, a mere second-rung state-level leader; one who was never even a member of the Union cabinet, a chief minister or a member of the CWC? The way the party and its allies — at least those that it consulted — went about selecting the next president, it seemed it was the least important sinecure in the Republic. Now you can’t defend yourselves saying, don’t take notice of any adverse revelations about her, after all, come July 25, and she will represent the glory of the Republic.

We will return to the issue of the allegations against her soon enough, but the problem with Pratibha Patil is not so much her track record as a banker, sugar mill owner or education entrepreneur. The problem is her lack of political stature. If, rather than give senior party men hope only to discard them, the Congress had chosen at least a well-known national figure, it could have saved itself this embarrassment, and the presidency this totally uncalled for trivialisation. After a massacre of its senior-most hopefuls, the Congress pulled out a lightweight who had never served on the national stage, and had not even been a chief minister in her state, probably because she was seen as non-controversial, and a woman too. This backfired. Her political and business background has only now come under public scrutiny. So have some of her utterances that do nothing for the cause of the modern Indian woman, or even gender equality.

ULTIMATELY, in politics, the logic of numbers prevails, so there is no doubt that Pratibha Patil will be our next president. But when was the last time a prime minister had to defend his presidential candidate by arguing that all sugar industry was suffering from a slump. Does that imply that it is okay if all sugar mill owners default on their loans? And, if so, why not announce a loan waiver for the sugar sector? Or, will we then institute a policy of loan write-offs for any sector of the industry that faces a slump?

Since the Congress now seems determined to brazen it out, there seems no doubt that Pratibha Patil will be our next president. At the same time, let there be no doubt that her tenure as president will be the most controversy-ridden in the history of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Nobody can predict the fall-out of some of these controversies, particularly those that happen to be under judicial scrutiny. It is one thing to have someone holding a conventional political position, a minister, a chief minister, exposed to those risks. But the president of the Republic?

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Chief Election Commissioner and the President are three positions where incumbents must not carry any baggage of the past that could ever raise any question about their judgment; that would ever give somebody the justification to point a finger at their judgment, their fairness and detachment. You and I know the Congress has many senior leaders who will question these doubts with great articulation. You and I also know there aren’t many who are doing this with any degree of comfort or conviction.

This presidency was always the Congress Party’s. And it had the choice of a dozen other candidates — among them many women — who would have looked more worthy and deserving of the job than Pratibha Patil and would have spared the institution of the presidency and the Congress five years of explaining. And, how’s this for irony? This is the same party that was so exquisitely careful in choosing its prime minister.

sg@expressindia.com