Reference Auto

The drama has finally unfolded ahead of the Presidential poll and surprisingly there doesn’t seem to be any talk of horse-trading?

So, have our parliamentarians (politicians) come clean and has former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav not been offered money or a favour to do a volte face (and support Congress candidate Pranab Mukherjee) in just 24 hours after making a commitment to jointly pitch for APJ Abdul Kalam as President with Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

We’ve seen what our politicians are capable of. With a litany of scams from the fodder case to the coffin scam to the mega telecom scandal, India’s reputation (courtesy the political parties) across the globe has taken a huge beating.

Corruption in Presidential poll, if any, could be the icing of the cake, prompting the public to utterly disregard politicians (with Team Anna getting even more vociferous on corruption in politics and instigating the people).

Many are of the opinion that the President’s post (as well as the posts of the vice-president and state governors) is a drain on tax-payers’ money to allow a politician to live his retired life king size in a country where over 30 per cent of the people are living in abject poverty.

We see India being at the forefront among global nations often for the wrong reasons like having the highest rate of people who defecate (go to toilet) in the open (the figure stands at nearly 55 per cent of the total population).

This is a record even Africa cannot match. So, can we afford to let certain sections live luxuriously?

However, considering the President’s post to be the pride of our nation, we may still want only this plum position to stay even as we face an economic slump (during a boom, over 60 per cent of our nation’s people are distressed. So, imagine what it would be like during a sluggish period).

But if we justify the necessity to keep a President (not a V-P or governors), let’s not make it a joke by appointing a politician to this post and let us change the system of voting and give weight to the civil society’s wishes instead of heeding to just the desire of our political masters.

We must bring in people like former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who will not only be neutral to any party (as the President should ideally be) but could also be India’s global ambassador and in a way replenish lost pride with his goodwill.

Mamata Banerjee may be isolated on this issue, but by selecting Kalam, she wanted to give out this message (to appoint a neutral President). But she wasn’t aware of Mulayam’s U-turn.

During the recent past, the Rajya Sabha elections witnessed vigorous horse-trading in Jharkhand with a relative of one of the aspirants (independent candidate RK Agarwal) being found with a bag of money, which the CBI felt was for distribution among the state’s legislators.

We should appoint politically-neutral persons as President as this will minimise graft or corruption in the selection process and not leave the decision to one person alone on who will be the President of India.

Horse-trading is common before formation of any alliance (especially that of a political representative), and if there is no horse-trading to win over the likes of Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad, Mulayam and others in this Presidential poll, then our political system must have evolved.