No ordinary person will ever be averse to a second term in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Therefore, all the stuff that is churned out by the Press about President Kalam wanting to stay or wanting to retire is all a load of inconsequential and completely unnecessary comment and analysis. They all want to stay on and for as long as possible?that?s the truth. If the incumbent President wants to retire, nothing can stop him from doing so, but instead we are made to witness a strange play of forces lobbying for his second term, with the President pretending to ?shy? away but allegedly delighted with the ?polls? about his popularity, which is why no person in India believes the utterances of those in exalted positions of power. Indians understand well the kissa kursi ka. We have been brought up listening to bedside stories on many such truths.
Living free is the most precious perk of high office. Unlike in the rest of the world where official residences are ?official? and not to be tampered with, in India any and every incumbent adds and destructs public property according to personal whim and fancy. The deteriorated condition of over 90% of government-owned properties in Delhi, sitting on possibly the most valuable bit of real estate in the world, vandalised by incumbents who believe their personal writ is law, is wholly inappropriate, verging on being scandalous. Tack, dirt and filth abound, as do a myriad unpleasant smells of an unkempt and unfortunate India. Good housekeeping has not rubbed off at all on these men and women who rule us today, bar a few who can be counted on the palm of one?s right hand.
South Block, the seat of the most powerful men and women who determine our future, is in decay. The walls and floors, the furniture and other objects that would have been preserved anywhere else in the world for historic reasons alone, are discarded by clueless and careless officers and politicians, who know no better than to fulfil their private, secret craving for fakes and formica, plastic and synthetic junk. Is this intellectual degradation, this lack of knowledge and sophistication to be able to comprehend what is good or not, the missing style, the crass truth of desperately wanting to ape and clone to lowest aesthetics of the Western world, symbolic of our descent into mire and anarchy? Alas, had there been a profound urge for excellence in those grand corridors, India too would have been a different, proud nation.
Back to Rashtrapati Bhavan?not only does the monumental building have to be restored and conserved, but also the sanctity and appropriateness of the office of President. There should be no second term for any president, good, bad or indifferent. A single term of five years is long enough to make an impact and short enough to ensure a certain distance from the political dispensation in the states and at the Centre. Other than Rajendra Prasad, the first President of our Republic, no President, not even S. Radhakrishnan and Dr Zakir Husain had a second term, and so it should be, for good reason. Therefore, let us preserve the sanctity of the Presidency.
A sitting President should not be suggesting names for a ?successor?. This goes against the code of the Constitution and the position itself. Equally, the Press should not be peddling its favourites |
A sitting president should not be suggesting names for a ?successor?. This goes against the code of the Constitution and the position itself. Equally, the Press should not be peddling its favourites for the Presidency by conducting opinion polls and SMS campaigns as they do for elected representatives. It is outside their jurisdiction. Their mandate is to analyse, reflect and expose, not lobby. To use the minority or caste card for this office, the highest in the land, is unbefitting and an endorsement of the most unsavoury aspect of our modern polity. Finally, a president must demit office in dignity, not embroiled in a tug-of-war between vested interest factions. Hopefully, President Kalam himself will take the corrective step and not allow himself to be misused by all the cynical political operators that abound on our public landscape, many of whom have made a mockery of the politics of India.
