President146;s spouses

The Union Cabinet was contemplating raising the salaries of the President, the Vice-President and the Governors, but deferred the decision on the proposal to after the presidential elections. Apparently, it did not want to create another hubbub when the election process was under way. Not that the Government had not thoroughly worked on the salary hike. In fact, it is clear from the Cabinet note on the increment prepared by the Home Ministry that the babus had decided a woman would be the next occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

While the Cabinet note, when defining the benefits for the families of deceased presidents, used the word 8220;widow8221; for the spouses of the late former presidents Neelam Sanjiva Reddy and Shankar Dayal Sharma, the later pages, keeping in view Pratibha Patil8217;s candidature, replaced the word 8220;widow8221; with 8220;spouses8221;.