Author: T R Jawahar
Publication: News Today
Date: June 30, 2007
URL: http://www.newstodaynet.com/2007pb/300607.htm
All the people of the nation, including this
thoughtless columnist, owe a collective apology to all the Presidents of the
nation from Dr Rajendra Prasad to Dr Abdul Kalam. We had always dubbed those
who occupied this ceremonial constitutional post as mere rubber stamps and
unceremoniously dumped them en masse as of no particular use to the country
at large. We had mocked at their political impotence, ridiculed their ineffectiveness
and have even laughed at the slavishness of some of them.
But all that was before Madam Pratiba Patil
arrived on the Presidential landscape. Within a fortnight of the nation being
introduced to and then getting 'familiar' with its prospective Prez, all the
earlier occupants of Rashtrapathi Bhavan now seem like super souls. First
Citizen, Second fiddle? So what? After all they were, by far, harmless though
useless; those were indeed blessed times. In hindsight, I would not really
mind a second term for a Zail Singh or VV Giri, were they to come alive. Call
it Pratiba Effect. So, where have we come to now? From mere puppets to puppets
with a past!
A Google search on Pratiba Patil a month back
would have yielded nothing. Try now and your PC's hard disk would likely crash
owing to the flurry and force of info on her; info not at all very flattering
to her. And info that certainly does not add credibility or respect to someone
angling to occupy the highest position of the land, howsoever ornamental it
may be. For instance, you will get to know in graphic detail about the bank
that went bust thanks to its founder Pratiba and her relatives who helped
themselves liberally to the funds of hapless depositors. And then there was
the sugar cooperative headed by her that soured a bit too fast, with crores
vanishing again into family coffers.
We will now move from Business news to Crime
news: Pratiba's brother is a murder accused. And the victim's family is accusing,
with credible evidence, Pratiba of shielding him. Pratiba's husband himself,
the future First Gentleman, is in the judicial docks for allegedly driving
an employee to suicide. Indeed, it looks she could put the power of Presidential
pardon to good use for her own kin, just as she obliged them with public funds.
So, with the scandal-a-day rate at which the media is unravelling the exploits
of this champion of women empowerment, rural emancipation and what not, you
can bet by July 25, Pratiba would be carting loads of skeletons that can fill
the cupboards of a hundred R.Bhavans!
But apart from skeletons, there are ghosts
too. Just the other day, she informed a befuddled nation that a long dead
Baba reappeared recently to tip her off on her impending political elevation.
The Rashtrapathi Bhavan may now need the services of a few exorcists as permanant
staff members. We are itching to know what the rational K who proposed her,
has to say on this. Again, her comments days earlier on the history of the
veil worn by the Muslim women of India elicited not-so-veiled reactions from
that community. Now, how are the Leftists going to tackle this direct hit
on secularism? And worse for the comrades, Pratiba's primary bete noirs are
the staff unions of the bank and coop society that folded. It also now transpires
that she was an ardent advocate of the Emergency and also campaigned for sterilisation,
come what may. All these must be quite enlightening to most UPA partners.
But really, the allies care less about who
sits where so long as they themselves are sitting pretty. And so Sonia would
get away with inflicting one more grave insult on this nation. She seems convinced
that this country would swallow anything, for it needs real gall to impose
such a personality with such antecedents for the top constitutional post.
After all we objected to Sonia's Italian origins. She has responded in a fit
of perverted pleasure by giving us someone of unadulterated Indian origin.
Can we complain? Rather shouldn't we be thanking our stars besides Sonia,
for not getting Quottrochchi as our President? After all, he has now been
exonerated albeit abroad, declared as more sinned against and has virtually
been beatified as a Saint of Saints!
And so Saint Sonia remains unmoved despite
the all round clamour about Pratiba's past. Instead, it is her Prime Ministerial
pet puppet cum proxy who has volunteered to bear the cross. Manmohan Singh
has risen to Pratiba's defence, accusing her detractors of indulging in needless
mud-slinging. But didn't we pick and pack all that mud only from Pratiba's
own backyard? Forget the BJP which might have an axe to grind. Do all those
mediamen who are digging up her past, the apolitical bloggers stalking the
net and lakhs of aghast countrymen too have a personal grudge against a person
about whom they knew precious little till a month ago? No one expects the
Prez to command respect; but the citizens' concern is that the
R.Bhavan should not become a political asylum
of sorts either. So, wear your thinking turban, Manmohanji, before defending
the indefensible!
Again, the Cong apologists are trying to hide
behind convention to cover up their murky choice. The convention of 'no-contest'
is a Cong invention. The party was able to have its way on Presidential choice
during most of the last 60 years because it enjoyed a clear majority. But
things have changed; the Cong holds a paltry 140 out of the total 540 plus.
Still the party and its leader act as if they own the nation. And to be talking
of the sanctity of the Presidential post after violating it so blatantly by
foisting the dubious PP is another unkind cut.
The UPA has a choice: Dump Pratiba right away
or await a possible impeachment later. An unprecedented Presidential poll,
indeed.
e-mail the writer at trjawahar@vsnl.net
