Being presidential

Whoever is the next president will have to contend with two attributes vested in the institution by the current incumbent. Even the most sceptical assessments of President Abdul Kalam8217;s term will have to admit that he did refashion presidency in a way that attracted popular interest. Rashtrapati Bhavan had long ceased to have any substantive connect with the larger society when Kalam took the job. As his five years in the job end, he can, if he so chooses, successfully claim that he brought the grand imperial building in New Delhi back into mass national consciousness. He has given the institution of presidency a character, some distinctiveness, perhaps even some flair. He has done that in part by making his office a source of and a host to ideation. It is silly to ask what policy President Kalam has influenced. That is not his job. Rather, ask which other president in recent memory established himself as a champion of ideas. Ask, also, why there was popular resonance about presidential enthusiasm for the big picture.

The second attribute of the Kalam presidency 8212; his politically non-partisan background 8212; has been already critiqued by politicians as being a weakness. The Left, the Congress, the BJP all looked among politicians while searching for Kalam8217;s successor. But let8217;s think back to the one decision that Kalam took that was certainly fit for a critique 8212; his decision, while on a trip abroad, to simply okay a cabinet decision to impose president8217;s rule in Bihar. It was an example of the institution of presidency not being deployed in all its moral force in the face of an alarmingly irregular executive decision. But all criticism of the quick presidential assent to the Bihar decision was cast in terms of a wrong call on Kalam8217;s part 8212; no one had to look for any other explanation because the president8217;s most severe critiques knew party politics is not an element in the Kalam matrix.

So the next president will assume office with the bar somewhat raised. A purely ceremonial cipher of a president will result in rapid disconnect, popular interest in the institution will quickly go down. This can8217;t be a good development. Even politicians who pick presidential names out of a hat will have to admit this. And if the next president has to make decisions that have deep political implications, he or she will have to convince everyone that his or her active political background was irrelevant. If the next resident of Rashtrapati Bhavan wants to clear the bar he or she should start by admitting there is a bar to clear.