It took India nine candidates in addition to a ninety-day long scuffle and a reshuffle of powers in the finance ministry to find its 13th President. While at the dawn of the Presidential race an apolitical candidate was preferred more over any other , the one who actually managed to reach the finishing line is a senior leader of Indian National Congress, Pranab Mukherjee.
Whether or not Mukherjee is the right choice for the post of India’s President is too early to comment on, but what comes out as a striking phenomena in the whole drama behind this election is that, It all started with big hush-hush between the parties about their preferential candidates from among the nine nomimees, whom the political parties found it too early to comment on any of the names.
However, with the news ravening media being on run 24x7, the private meetings between political parties came into limelight. Following which, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee along with Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh gave out their support to Congress’ candidates. By this time it was clear that Pranab Mukherjee and Hamid Ansari were the two strong contenders in the Presidential race. Hence, the very first preference of an apolitical nominee was out of question…that’s politics!
The so-called brotherhood between the three parties didn’t last for long. In what can be termed as a u-turn, in a big political googly both TMC and Samajwadi Party withdrew their support. And in addition, they named three more candidates for the post of President; that of former Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, former President APJ Abdul Kalam and haa!!..Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (which was probably a joke)…that’s politics!
At this point of time, politics was so much at its peak that Mamata Banerjee, who has been the reason behind the conflict between TMC and Communist Party of India for some time now and who actually gave speeches against CPI publically, shocked all by naming the former Left leader Somnath Chatterjee as one of ‘her’ preferential candidate for the President’s post…that’s politics!
On a contrary note, Banerjee failed to gather the much needed support for her chosen candidate. Following which, she turned her support towards the former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. But as this time the lady luck was not with the lady of West Bengal. The much respected Dr. Kalam backed out of dirty politics himself, leaving Banerjee with ‘no other option’ than backing Pranab Mukherjee, as the other contender PA Sangma didn’t seem to appear in her list at all…is that politics too?
It need not be said more about how, post his resignation from the finance ministry, Pranab Mukherjee went to each party begging for their votes…that’s also politics!
With over 40-years of experience in politics, Mukherjee is perhaps one with the caliber of being India’s Prime Minister. However, factors like him being a headstrong leader, Sonia Gandhi as Congress President and Dr Manmohan Singh being her loyal employee, chances of Mukherjee being India’s chief were quite minimal. Probably that could be one of the reasons why Mukherjee readily agreed to take over the Presidential post. But at what cost?
Even before Mukherjee can go through the swearing ceremony for the post of President, the political parties which stood for his support are hinting that it will not be a cakewalk. For instance, Shiv Sena, which called it off with NDA to support Pranab Mukherjee, now wants him to reject Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s mercy plea.
In ‘Saamna’ the mouth piece of Shiv Sena, Bal Thackeray wrote, “we have many expectations from you. We urge you to reject Afzal Guru's mercy plea and hang him. Pranabda you should do this on priority basis and should kick-start your career as President of India. It is an August conduct that we expect from you."…hahahaa…that’s definitely politics!
No I am definitely not a supporter of Afzal Guru, but I just wonder, what would Mr Thackeray do, if Mr Mukhejee takes his own decision? After all, he comes from the party which has chosen to keep the issue on hold since forever to appease a section of the society. So after pleading for votes from the Shiv Sena, does Mr. Mukherjee really have the ‘power’ to end the pause on the Afzal Guru case? We wonder…cause it’s all politics!!
Whether or not Mukherjee is the right choice for the post of India’s President is too early to comment on, but what comes out as a striking phenomena in the whole drama behind this election is that, It all started with big hush-hush between the parties about their preferential candidates from among the nine nomimees, whom the political parties found it too early to comment on any of the names.
However, with the news ravening media being on run 24x7, the private meetings between political parties came into limelight. Following which, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee along with Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh gave out their support to Congress’ candidates. By this time it was clear that Pranab Mukherjee and Hamid Ansari were the two strong contenders in the Presidential race. Hence, the very first preference of an apolitical nominee was out of question…that’s politics!
The so-called brotherhood between the three parties didn’t last for long. In what can be termed as a u-turn, in a big political googly both TMC and Samajwadi Party withdrew their support. And in addition, they named three more candidates for the post of President; that of former Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, former President APJ Abdul Kalam and haa!!..Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (which was probably a joke)…that’s politics!
At this point of time, politics was so much at its peak that Mamata Banerjee, who has been the reason behind the conflict between TMC and Communist Party of India for some time now and who actually gave speeches against CPI publically, shocked all by naming the former Left leader Somnath Chatterjee as one of ‘her’ preferential candidate for the President’s post…that’s politics!
On a contrary note, Banerjee failed to gather the much needed support for her chosen candidate. Following which, she turned her support towards the former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. But as this time the lady luck was not with the lady of West Bengal. The much respected Dr. Kalam backed out of dirty politics himself, leaving Banerjee with ‘no other option’ than backing Pranab Mukherjee, as the other contender PA Sangma didn’t seem to appear in her list at all…is that politics too?
It need not be said more about how, post his resignation from the finance ministry, Pranab Mukherjee went to each party begging for their votes…that’s also politics!
With over 40-years of experience in politics, Mukherjee is perhaps one with the caliber of being India’s Prime Minister. However, factors like him being a headstrong leader, Sonia Gandhi as Congress President and Dr Manmohan Singh being her loyal employee, chances of Mukherjee being India’s chief were quite minimal. Probably that could be one of the reasons why Mukherjee readily agreed to take over the Presidential post. But at what cost?
Even before Mukherjee can go through the swearing ceremony for the post of President, the political parties which stood for his support are hinting that it will not be a cakewalk. For instance, Shiv Sena, which called it off with NDA to support Pranab Mukherjee, now wants him to reject Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s mercy plea.
In ‘Saamna’ the mouth piece of Shiv Sena, Bal Thackeray wrote, “we have many expectations from you. We urge you to reject Afzal Guru's mercy plea and hang him. Pranabda you should do this on priority basis and should kick-start your career as President of India. It is an August conduct that we expect from you."…hahahaa…that’s definitely politics!
No I am definitely not a supporter of Afzal Guru, but I just wonder, what would Mr Thackeray do, if Mr Mukhejee takes his own decision? After all, he comes from the party which has chosen to keep the issue on hold since forever to appease a section of the society. So after pleading for votes from the Shiv Sena, does Mr. Mukherjee really have the ‘power’ to end the pause on the Afzal Guru case? We wonder…cause it’s all politics!!
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