Don't make Pranab the President

Never ever have I seen so much drama in Indian Presidential poll and I have seen at least some Presidential elections. Actually not seen the elections, usually you would hear in the news that soon our MPs and MLAs would vote for a new President and X,Y and Z are the nominees and then couple of weeks later, you have a new Prez!! But this time I think we have come very close to US presidential election fervor, starting right from the squabble between the alliance partners over the nominees to major parties failing to reach a consensus. Not that all the previous presidents have been elected by consensus but given the constitutional sanctity of the office of President it is considered a good practice to elect someone a President on whom all the stakeholders agree. That helps the stakeholders digest the President's decisions (the very few he is entitled to make on his own) much more easily - the most important being the appointment of the Prime Minister which brings me to why I don't think Pranab is the right man for this job!

Given the fractured state of Indian polity today and the completely tattered moral fabric of the ruling congress party - I do not think a old timer and a 10 Janpath loyalist like Pranab Mukherjee should be made the President - especially if there is no consensus on  his candidature. This becomes all the more important when you think of what the current Govt. has been upto (scams, blatant CYAs and absolutely no sense of purpose or direction) and how Pranab Mukherjee has been a central actor in this 3 year long charade. The biggest testimony of his lack of righteousness was the way he carried himself during his meeting with Team Anna on lokpal bill (you have to have to hear those tapes where Kapil Sibal tried playing the Bad cop and Pranab the good old neutral grand daddy but stalling every suggestion in the process!) and  thats where he missed out a golden opportunity to indelibly etch his name forever in Indian history as the 'janam-data' of the anti-corruption body and movement in India - but then he was just following the orders of his bosses!

Given the we are just two years away (or even less the way things are going right now) and the fact that a fractured verdict is going to be the most likely result - a neutral President is a must and not someone who owes his job to the political masters. Consider the scenario where both BJP and congress are neck to neck after the next general elections and it boils down to president's interpretation of who has the majority based on the support of smaller parties - a biased person occupying the President's office can easily abuse the office. And a repeat of the same Govermental set-up ...well would be disastrous to say the least.

While the citizens of this country do not have a direct vote or say in Presidential elections - how I wish we could impress upon our politicians and push for putting in place a neutral candidate who would uphold the sanctity of the President's office and hold close to his/her heart the interest of the people when it would come to the most important decisions - as that could be the final nail or a game-changer in the nation's destiny. I, for one do not trust Pranab Mukherjee for this august office and role - for him it is just going to be a retirement plan while for his bosses a way to keep a potential PM aspirant and therefore, a trouble-maker out of the way - we need better reasons for making someone a president and definitely a better person to be the President!

TMC - The new left in WB?

I still remember the day when Ratan Tata announced TML's pull out from Singur - perhaps in more than one way it was the last nail in the coffin as far as revival of WB economy was concerned (and of course for CPM Govt. in the state). The irony of the entire situation was that it was communist government which wanted a capitalist entity to come and set their facility in the state and was vehemently and successfully opposed by a more centralist party - didi led TMC. The situation left me wondering if perhaps TMC and CPM have swapped places and perhaps TMC was the new left in WB? And when last year (or was it this year) didi finally managed to oust the incumbent CPM after 30 years of rule - again I was forced to ask myself, if people have really voted for a change - or was it just a new entity in the old leftist placeholder vacated by a pro-reformist CPM? Is it that people still want a left oriented govt. and this time it was TMC which was found more eligible for that mantle? And over the last few months, our beloved didi's antics seem to be proving me right. The way she has been arm-twisting the Centre on reforms be it petrol price hike (which is supposedly deregulated now!!) or railways reforms (which is heading the Air India way) or simply the blatant handling (A 'not my problem' approach) of law & order situation or health care in the state -all takes one back to days when CPM was at its peak of tyranny - when hooliganism ruled the state and any reforms were thought as anti-people and therefore, not good enough to be even touched by barge pole. Thanks to 30 years of CPM rule, WB came to be know only for three thing - laid-backness, strikes and goondaism perpetrated by CPM.Kolkata the city which was once hailed as the London of the east and where India's industrial revolution supposedly took birth is now a sad laggard with only few companies such as ITC remaining there more due to legacy reasons (Few years ago, I had heard that ITC also wanted to shift their HO out of the state but decided to stay back after a lot of pleading by the CPM govt). And when it seemed that CPM was making a turn for better (of course things like their handling of Land acquisition in Singur point in a very different direction) - they seemed to have been replaced by a party which looks like a new avtaar of what CPM perhaps was 30 years ago - an anti-capitalist, anti establishment party under the guise of pro-poor party promising to make the state a utopia for downtrodden - something which this state definitely does not need.The worst is that didi's control over Delhi and the way it is affecting issues of National importance - not only is she pulling down the state she can potentially create havoc at the national level.

The events of last few months in WB has once again proved to me that there is a huge difference between being popular and being a good ruler/administrator - didi for sure falls flat on the latter front. WB is a state that needed a lot of change but from the looks of it - its going to be a long constant. While I hope that people of WB are able to see though this and vote a better govt next time (all they need to do for next 5 years is pray to god for driving some sense in you know who) - I am more worried out how things will play out at center. Country at this stage needs a lot of impetus on reforms - critics world over have started writing eulogies on India's economic revival and we need a strong action oriented leadership at the centre to change it - something where Mamta Banerjee's actions are definitely not helping. We need to remember one thing - if WB is in dumps a healthy India can always bail it out- but if India is in dumps - then God help us all!