Kaun Banega Next Prez

[Guest]

Nugget-
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Not about women’s power</b>
Sir—Apropos the ongoing debate over the antecedents of the UPA-Left combine’s nominee for the office of President, it may be recalled that during the fourth presidential election in 1967, Manohara Holkar tried her luck as an Independent candidate to become the first woman President of India. But she did not get a single vote; Zakir Hussain was elected to the office and became the first Muslim and third President of India.

The second woman presidential candidate was Gurcharan Kaur, who took on VV Giri in 1969 and finished fifth among 15 contenders. Kaur got 940 votes and Giri won with 401,515 votes, becoming the fourth President of the country.

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was elected the fifth President in1974; Giani Zail Singh, the first Sikh to hold the office, was the seventh President; KR Narayanan was the first Dalit to become President; and, APJ Abdul Kalam, whose tenure is about to end, is the third Muslim to become President.

From the mixed results above, it is clear that a given candidate’s social identity — in terms of his or her religion, caste or gender — has never been the qualification that determined the outcome of a presidential election. Ms Pratibha Patil’s gender is a post facto justification of ‘women’s empowerment’. Had the ruling alliance been serious about women’s empowerment through the tokenism of nominating a woman candidate for the office of President, there were more capable women with clean records within and outside the ruling parties to choose from.
Chandra Vikas Srivastav <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->