Tags:
Journalism of Courage
As president, Pratibha Patil will confront a question new to India8217;s presidency: Will Rashtrapati Bhavan now revert to the place it used to be, before Abdul Kalam? It is a measure of Kalam8217;s influence over the institution he inhabited, and a tribute to it, that this question should be asked with a degree of anxiety and concern. Over the past five years, Kalam brought to India8217;s presidency his personal integrity, unique charm and eccentricities. But he did something more than that. He opened the gates of Rashtrapati Bhavan. It is not just that many more people set foot inside its precincts than before. It is, also, that the president constantly and blithely found ways to step out of the ceremony of his office to engage with ideas that were currently firing the imagination of a young and aspirational India. Kalam8217;s tenure will be remembered, most of all, for the ways in which he circumvented the most favoured dichotomy about the presidency. The president of India, it was said, can either be 8216;activist8217; or a 8216;rubber stamp8217;. Kalam has been, instead and quite simply, the 8220;people8217;s president8221;.
The final vote tally shows that the Congress-led UPA held together and fissures in the BJP-led NDA have been publicly exposed by the presidential race. But while that is good news for the Congress and cause of increasing worry for its main political rival, the ruling party, hopefully, understands that the overly partisan nature of the contest cannot be good news for the presidency. It imposes a special responsibility on Pratibha Patil. Through her conduct in office, she must ensure that the presidency keeps the necessary distance from the politics of the day. If it has to retain the respect of the people in an irreverent age, the presidency must not only be above the division and faction of quotidian politics, it must also be seen to be so.
