Opinion Next Rashtrapati

More power to our intrepid RTI activists! More power to the media!

The incumbent President’s tenure is ending the way it began-controversially. I need not remind the readers of this column how it began. Her Pune mansion,had it come up,would have deprived many war widows of having modest homes on that land,the minimum that a grateful nation must ensure by way of its moral duty towards its,sadly,less-remembered martyrs and war heroes. However,not many people probably remember that another widow,in the President’s own native town,Jalgaon,in Maharashtra,has been deprived of justice by our ‘criminal’ justice system,whose wheels have almost remained immobilised in the last five years. Whether these wheels have been immobilised deliberately or not,and whether they were actually made to move backwards with the help of an ever-pliable CBI,is for the moral conscience of the lords of this system to decide.

Along with my courageous lawyer-friend Mahesh Jethmalani,I was one of those who had stuck their necks out before the 2007 presidential election to let the nation know about this hapless widow’s cry for justice. A certain un-immersed asthi kalash is still sitting in her modest home in Jalgaon as a mute reminder of her resolve to seek nyaya from our Nyaya Palika. There is no need to go into the details of this sordid case—those who are interested in knowing may get the necessary information from the Internet. Yes,more power to the Internet,too.

Even though I am aware of the care and caution one must exercise in commenting on an issue of this nature,I find myself utterly unable to suppress the appearance of one word in this discussion on the beginning and the end of the tenure of India’s 12th Rashtrapati: DISGRACE!

This column is not about who should become India’s 13th Rashtrapati. Rather,it is about what kind of Rashtrapati India should have,and what should be the considerations of those—usually the ruling party or coalition—who have the requisite number of votes to get their candidate elected as the head of the Indian Republic. I would like honest Congressmen to introspect whether their party made the right choice by making a non-descript and thoroughly undeserving political functionary India’s President in 2007. Patil had no outstanding record of service to the nation before she occupied Rashtrapati Bhavan. In July,she’ll relinquish the august office without in any way adding to its prestige. And if you’ve not forgotten the plight and the fight of the other Mrs Patil in Jalgaon,whose slain husband was a widely respected Congressman but became a victim of inter-party rivalry,then you’ll agree that she has actually added some taint to the country’s highest Constitutional institution.

The last time Rashtrapati Bhavan was tainted by an unworthy occupant was in 1977,when Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed,forgetting that he was the custodian of the Constitution,turned a blind eye to its mutilation and molestation by a Congress government that imposed the Emergency. This newspaper,one of the very few that showed the courage to oppose Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for suppressing democracy,had carried an unforgettable cartoon by Abu Abraham those days. It showed a spineless Rashtrapati in a bathtub,handing out to the PM’s emissary the Emergency ordinance signed by him,and saying,“If there are any more ordinances,just ask them to wait.”

A lot of the problems we face in our country today have either been caused or exacerbated by the devaluation of our democratic institutions. This breeds cynicism. And cynicism in turn corrodes people’s faith in democracy and its institutions. Nothing can do more harm to the Republic in the long term if the President fails to stand by its foundational ideals. For example,what credibility do the President’s words carry if she says in her speeches that the judiciary,the CBI and the police should be impartial and fearless in the discharge of their duties? How can she inspire the youth to become idealistic when her own personality reflects no commitment to lofty principles? Some people might counter these questions by pointing out that worse offenders populate our public life. True. But they have not taken the oath to protect the Constitution.

Therefore,a heavy responsibility rests on the leaders of the UPA,NDA and those parties that are not a part of either of them,to first select deserving candidates for the forthcoming presidential poll,and then elect the most suitable candidate in the fray. In particular,the UPA has an opportunity and also an obligation not to repeat the mistake of wanting a ‘rubber-stamp’ in Rashtrapati Bhavan.