Looking for a new President...
Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh (Retd)
THE 13th and the incumbent President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, completes his term on July 25, and the grand estate on the Raisina Hill, Rashtrapati Bhavan, will subsequently witness the swearing in of the 14th President of India (not including the terms of acting President of India, VV Giri, Mohammad Hidayatullah and Basappa Danappa Jatti). While the terms of the President are renewable for another five years, the only President to have been reelected for a second term was Dr Rajendra Prasad or ‘Desh Ratna’. It is to his credit that the office of the President has institutionalised a certain culture of non-partisanship, statesmanship and apolitical conduct (the exceptional cases of presidential pusillanimity have thankfully been rare). Even though Dr Prasad had a political colossus in Jawaharlal Nehru as the PM, the first President set the precedent for independent opinions that could be expressed, even if they varied from those of the ‘parent’ political party or its leadership to whom the President owed his appointment through indirect election. The expression and style of presidential expression, dissent or intervention since then has varied with various incumbents — from the openly expressive form during the tenure of Dr Prasad, confrontationist tenor during Dr Zail Singh or even the more intellectually sober form during Dr KR Narayanan’s tenure.
The ‘First Citizen’ of India is more than a constitutional necessity or even more than the profound role of a ‘conscience keeper’ of the nation. In today’s politically fragmented India, it is a functional position of practicality to protect and valourise India’s commitments to its foundational values. The evolving narrative of Indian politics has ensured that the principal role of the President as the defender of the hallowed Constitution, has acquired more interventionist and activist conventions. The principal of ‘equality of rights’ is shaped by the Indian Constitution that is intrinsically non-discriminatory, irrespective of any socio-religious-economic divides, hence the President who takes the unique oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution’ (unlike the PM and others who ‘swear allegiance to the Constitution’), the answerability of the presidential position is only to the holy book of the Constitution and its citizens, thus the former President APJ Abdul Kalam modelled himself as the ‘People’s President’.
The process of selection entailing the combined votes of the electoral college consisting of the members from both houses of Parliament, legislative assemblies of all states and from Puducherry and Delhi, renders the final process and outcome to be a political choice or decision. To think otherwise would be naive, as all previous selections have been reflective of the strength of the ruling dispensations of the times. With the recent state elections delivering a strong verdict in favour of the ruling BJP party at the Centre, the choice for the 14th President would essentially be the predominant choice of the ruling dispensation. To go for a political person, an apolitical appointee or even a party ideologue is the legitimate prerogative of political parties, as long as the subsequent conduct of the presidential appointee reflects the constitutional correctness and probity, without any subsequent political biases or subjectivity.
Often the selection process of the candidates is subjected to the topical posturings that are rooted in attempts to symbolically integrate the myriad diversities of India. The affixations of ‘the first Dalit President’, ‘the first Sikh President’, ‘the first woman President’ are societal nomenclatures in a show of societal assimilation and posturing to garner the moral acquiescence for the candidates, initially. However, to confine individuals to these nomenclatures often does injustice to their subsequent contributions e.g. KR Narayanan was not just the first Dalit President of India, he was arguably the most erudite, upright and dignified crusader in Rashtrapati Bhavan. His compelling conduct and heightened sense of constitutional propriety reintroduced the concept of ‘working President’, albeit in a characteristically sensitive way, without threatening the democratic instincts of the system. The phenomenon of ‘rubber stamp’ President was given a quiet burial, with him constantly innovating, improvising and pushing the envelope of presidential concerns. To remember his tenure as only that of the first Dalit President would be grossly inadequate. That said, presidential selections afford a powerful signal of ‘composite India’ and offers the opportunity to showcase India’s aspirations and commitments towards equality of opportunities to the highest office of the land.
The Presidents can enforce a huge moral weight on any government through the judicious exercise of ‘intervention’, even if technically and ultimately the President is bound by ‘the advise of the government’. Similarly, the President seeking expert ‘consultation’ on a contentious point is as powerful a message of reconsideration for the government of the day as, say, implied in the ‘return of the unsigned file’. It loads the public imagination with a gentle, yet contrarian query. Even presidential speeches carry messages and sentiments that convey far deeper meaning than the literal sense. KR Narayanan’s famous banquet speech in honour of US President Bill Clinton was a subtle rebuke to the US’s hegemonistic instincts when he stated, “the fact that the world is a global village does not mean that it will be run by one village headman”, in a classic ode to his diplomatic finesse and gravitas.
Rumour mills have already started with the names ranging from those of certain prominent people from the ideological fount of the BJP, corporate czars with a certain line of thinking, members from the geriatric ‘Margdarshak Mandal’, to even other senior governmental functionaries who represent the social diversities of India. The reality is, beyond a point, the previous political antecedents of the nominees are less important, than the subsequent will to behove and distinguish oneself with the requisite constitutional propriety and sobriety, whilst in chair. While opinions on the performance of the previous presidential tenures varies, rarely can any of the Presidents in the last 40-odd years be accused of any overt political bias during their tenure. Today, India is a deeply polarised society with extreme positions acquiring prominence, preference and political beneficence. Equally, the politics are mirroring the said churn and it is imperative that the next ‘conscience keeper’ can reign in regressive tendencies with the constitutional and moral powers bestowed on the chair. There is no dearth of talent or suitability to choose from, yet the choice of the 14th President of India will prove the government’s commitment to plurality, inclusivity and independence of ‘institutions’.
The writer was a Military Secretary to President KR Narayanan
