06-15-2007, 11:58 PM
Pioneer Op-Ed
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Who will be the next President?
DN Mishra
The President of India is merely a titular head. He has to abide by the decision of the Government. At best, he can refer back a decision of the Cabinet only once but if it is returned to him the second time he has to put his stamp of approval. But, he plays a significant role when there is a fractured mandate or even otherwise in case of disputable arithmetic of numbers in the Lok Sabha.
<b>After the election of 2004 Lok Sabha, if in place of APJ Abdul Kalam the preceding occupant was there, he would have administered the oath of office of Prime Minister to Sonia Gandhi. Imagine what would have happened?</b>
Today, at the juncture of this Presidential election, there is a similar situation. <b>The impending Lok Sabha election is not going to yield the magic majority for any party. Alliances have to be there. In such a situation, the President's role will be crucial. Many names are doing the rounds.</b> There are debates on why not give APJ Abdul Kalam a second term. In fact, the BJP leaders had gone to him with a request. His response was positive in words but negative in content.
He agreed but with the condition that his candidature would have to be unanimous, knowing well the hostile attitude of Sonia Gandhi. Next followed the debate over politician vs non-politician in Rashtrapathi Bhawan. The Left wants a political President. Various surveys conducted showed that 70 per cent to 90 per cent people want that Kalam be given a second term. If there were direct elections for Presidentship, Kalam would have won hands down.
Then there was serious proposal for Narayananmurthy of Infosys. Various non-political people like Mashelkar and, Rahul Bajaj were speculated upon. <b>From the Congress side, the first name that appeared was that of Sushil Kumar Shinde hoping that he would get the votes of Schedule Caste MPs across partylines. But with the UP elections and Mayawati emerging at the top, the scenario changed. She would not like any other Dalit leader to be seen higher than herself. So Shinde's fate got sealed.</b>
She proposed a Brahmin candidate. A number of names came up - Pranab Mukherjee, ND Tiwari, Motilal Vohra and Vasant Sathe. Mukherjee being the only experienced Minister in the Cabinet who apparently couldn't be spared and Tiwari were out of favour. <b>In his own eyes, Arjun Singh is the senior most among the Congressmen. But he is unpopular.</b>
Now it has been officially declared that Sonia Gandhi will decide the Congress candidate at an appropriate time. I have witnessed a number of Presidential elections and one name that invariably gets floated every time is Dr Karan Singh. <b>At present, the Congress is seriously pursuing a Muslim appeasement policy. </b>So, the name of former Chief Justice AH Ahmadi also did the rounds. One can go on adding any number of candidates if newspapers are guides.
<b>On the contrary, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is conducting a campaign for himself. He will have leave no stone unturned. He went to Jyoti Basu seeking his support. He conducted Rajya Sabha as Chairman with grace and aplomb. He has friends across partylines. If one can recall, the Vice-Presidential election he made history of sorts as the NDA candidate. The NDA's numerical strength was enough to win Vice-Presidentship, but he got 45 votes more from parties not in the NDA.</b>
Shekhawat is not only a political figure but a clever one too. <b>One can recall the first support he got from SP which organised an election rally during a UP campaign. It was addressed by J Jayalalitha, Om Prakash Chautala, Chandrababu Naidu and AGP leader Brindaban Goswami.</b> It is obvious that for all these parties the choice is Shekhawat.
Recently, there was a meeting of leaders of eight parties. In Chennai meeting due next week it may be formalised. <b>I think that the formation Third Front may tern out to be only an aggregation of parties. I say so because there must be a solid all India pole around which allies may play their role. Without a strong central pole, Government could be disastrous, as we are witnessing in the UPA.</b> It is not only on the price front, internal security minority appeasement but also on economic front and the conduct of foreign policy, the UPA conglomerate is full of discordant voices. <b>A stable pole at the Centre is essential which the Third Front lacks.</b>
<b>But the Third Front may play a crucial role in the President's election. On the surface if looks like the Congress candidate will win hands-down for there is a gap of 1.1 lakh votes between Shekhawat and so far the unknown Congress candidate. But don't be too sure of this result for 1.1 lakh vote gap is too small a margin. Just 60,000 votes falling into the net of Shekhawat will turn the table.</b>
This Presidential election is going to be interesting one.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Who will be the next President?
DN Mishra
The President of India is merely a titular head. He has to abide by the decision of the Government. At best, he can refer back a decision of the Cabinet only once but if it is returned to him the second time he has to put his stamp of approval. But, he plays a significant role when there is a fractured mandate or even otherwise in case of disputable arithmetic of numbers in the Lok Sabha.
<b>After the election of 2004 Lok Sabha, if in place of APJ Abdul Kalam the preceding occupant was there, he would have administered the oath of office of Prime Minister to Sonia Gandhi. Imagine what would have happened?</b>
Today, at the juncture of this Presidential election, there is a similar situation. <b>The impending Lok Sabha election is not going to yield the magic majority for any party. Alliances have to be there. In such a situation, the President's role will be crucial. Many names are doing the rounds.</b> There are debates on why not give APJ Abdul Kalam a second term. In fact, the BJP leaders had gone to him with a request. His response was positive in words but negative in content.
He agreed but with the condition that his candidature would have to be unanimous, knowing well the hostile attitude of Sonia Gandhi. Next followed the debate over politician vs non-politician in Rashtrapathi Bhawan. The Left wants a political President. Various surveys conducted showed that 70 per cent to 90 per cent people want that Kalam be given a second term. If there were direct elections for Presidentship, Kalam would have won hands down.
Then there was serious proposal for Narayananmurthy of Infosys. Various non-political people like Mashelkar and, Rahul Bajaj were speculated upon. <b>From the Congress side, the first name that appeared was that of Sushil Kumar Shinde hoping that he would get the votes of Schedule Caste MPs across partylines. But with the UP elections and Mayawati emerging at the top, the scenario changed. She would not like any other Dalit leader to be seen higher than herself. So Shinde's fate got sealed.</b>
She proposed a Brahmin candidate. A number of names came up - Pranab Mukherjee, ND Tiwari, Motilal Vohra and Vasant Sathe. Mukherjee being the only experienced Minister in the Cabinet who apparently couldn't be spared and Tiwari were out of favour. <b>In his own eyes, Arjun Singh is the senior most among the Congressmen. But he is unpopular.</b>
Now it has been officially declared that Sonia Gandhi will decide the Congress candidate at an appropriate time. I have witnessed a number of Presidential elections and one name that invariably gets floated every time is Dr Karan Singh. <b>At present, the Congress is seriously pursuing a Muslim appeasement policy. </b>So, the name of former Chief Justice AH Ahmadi also did the rounds. One can go on adding any number of candidates if newspapers are guides.
<b>On the contrary, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is conducting a campaign for himself. He will have leave no stone unturned. He went to Jyoti Basu seeking his support. He conducted Rajya Sabha as Chairman with grace and aplomb. He has friends across partylines. If one can recall, the Vice-Presidential election he made history of sorts as the NDA candidate. The NDA's numerical strength was enough to win Vice-Presidentship, but he got 45 votes more from parties not in the NDA.</b>
Shekhawat is not only a political figure but a clever one too. <b>One can recall the first support he got from SP which organised an election rally during a UP campaign. It was addressed by J Jayalalitha, Om Prakash Chautala, Chandrababu Naidu and AGP leader Brindaban Goswami.</b> It is obvious that for all these parties the choice is Shekhawat.
Recently, there was a meeting of leaders of eight parties. In Chennai meeting due next week it may be formalised. <b>I think that the formation Third Front may tern out to be only an aggregation of parties. I say so because there must be a solid all India pole around which allies may play their role. Without a strong central pole, Government could be disastrous, as we are witnessing in the UPA.</b> It is not only on the price front, internal security minority appeasement but also on economic front and the conduct of foreign policy, the UPA conglomerate is full of discordant voices. <b>A stable pole at the Centre is essential which the Third Front lacks.</b>
<b>But the Third Front may play a crucial role in the President's election. On the surface if looks like the Congress candidate will win hands-down for there is a gap of 1.1 lakh votes between Shekhawat and so far the unknown Congress candidate. But don't be too sure of this result for 1.1 lakh vote gap is too small a margin. Just 60,000 votes falling into the net of Shekhawat will turn the table.</b>
This Presidential election is going to be interesting one.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->