Pratibha Patil - Wrong Candidate for Wrong Reasons

Pratibha Pati who? - is UPA's candidate for post of president, handpicked by one person, Sonia Gandhi. The day when her nomination was announced i wasn't aware of the fact that someone with her caliber! exists which can be better than or even par with outgoing President Abdul Kalam. She was chosen ahead of, four senior-most members of current cabinet holding important portfolios, Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, Arjun Singh and Sushil Kumar Shinde. And now we all know why she was chosen, which itself suggests who affairs are conducted in India's political circles.To me, "She is a wrong candidate for wrong reasons". This also reminds me how we chose HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujaral for the job of Prime Minister.

The post of president is ceremonial in India, and in past president have been hand picked by congress party who served Gandhi family, starting from Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Giani Zail Singh and Shankar Dayal Sharma. Prtibha Patil falls in the same category. This also gives insights on congress party's mindset and their approach in doing their business.

The post has got more relevance since Venkat Raman, KR Narayanan and Abdul Kalam has chaired it. Everybody agrees across the country from seniors to children, from north to south from east to west and across the globe, that there is no better candidate then Abdul Kalam. But Sonia Gandhi with a goddess like stature in Congress Party think otherwise. If the president were elected by direct vote of the Indian people, against people like Narayan Murthy, Medha Pathkar, Amitabh Bachhan, Ratan Tata, Sunil Mittal, Sachin Tendulkar, Vishwanathn Anand or others, I bet that any of the people I have named would get more votes than Pratibha Patil. So question is how did the Congress decision-makers reject all of them and settle on her and Communists supported this? I'm confused as others to see any rational behind this decision.

Looking at previous candidates, foremost qualification is loyalty. If that’s the case then many people have left the Congress over the years; the Bharatiya Janata Party would be a shadow of itself if all ex-Congressmen left it. And if you are a Congressman, you do not have to leave the party to be disloyal. Since the present Congress is Congress (Indira), any flirtation with Congress (Organization) forty years ago would have disqualified Pratibha Patil. The loyalty required is not loyalty to the party, but to the dynasty of the party. And from Communists point of view it is the lack of achievement as they have demonstrated in Bengal, but if this is a qualification then I’m afraid to say that almost every politician would qualify for this and it would be impossible to choose a candidate.

So in a nutshell, Pratibha Patil will be a hopeless, colourless president, which suits her personality. This is not something we should worry about, as most previous presidents were no different. Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Giani Zail Singh and Shankar Dayal Sharma had the same qualifications as Pratibha Patil. Their stint as a president were so forgettable that Pratibha Patil cannot do worse. She has a great job; expectations are so low that she can only surprise us. The day she will sworn in, will go in history books as a blunder by congress and left and will be proven come 2009 elections.