Editorial
A new president for India
Pratibha Patil has rich legacy to go by
The election of Pratibha Patil as India's president brings to an end a rather exciting phase in the modern history of the country. Part of the excitement has to do with the fact that Ms. Patil is the first woman to occupy the office. But by far it is the other part of it, namely, the controversy that her candidacy gave rise to that cannot be ignored. The president-elect had been accused of committing quite a few irregularities, as reported in the Indian media, in her stints in earlier political positions, notably as governor of a state. But such accusations clearly did not move the ruling UPA, whose nominee she was. Ms. Patil was also seen as a Sonia Gandhi loyalist, which implied that she might turn out to be a pliant president. All of that is now in the past. Pratibha Patil, in her seventies, has beaten octogenarian Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to the top job. She will now be expected to uphold the stature and position of the office of head of state, a matter that acquires particular significance since she will replace the eminently respected A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. In his years in office, President Kalam exercised a moral authority that served as a reminder of the august traditions set by earlier Indian presidents. Names such as Rajendra Prasad, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain and Shankar Dayal Sharma evoke a certain mystique associated with Rashtrapati Bhavan. It was this mystique that Dr. Kalam sought to uphold in the past five years, despite the reality that it was the BJP-led government which, to its credit, elected him to office. The new president will certainly be expected to emulate her worthy predecessors. She ought not to be seen as a latter-day Zail Singh. One hopes that Pratibha Patil, being only the second individual after V.V. Giri in 1969 to be elected to the presidency in a contested election, will prove worthy of her exalted position. We congratulate the new president of India. All said and done, she can still make a difference in a country where women have made a niche for themselves. Indira Gandhi in the past and Mayawati and Vasundhara Raje in our times are some examples before her.
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