Selecting the Indian President - Loyalty Above Pride

Still remember the day Dr. Kalam was suggested as a candidate for the President's post. It was almost a foregone conclusion that he would be the popular choice despite a token resistance and an opposition candidate fielded by the Left.

One thing that has been changed by Dr. Kalam is the image of the President. I am not sure whether there was another President before who engaged so much with the ordinary people, be it just the student community. K.R. Narayanan had tried to do it in his own way, the historic visit by a President to a village in Rajasthan to honour a village community for its effort in water conservation perhaps emphasized a national agenda. But it was Kalam who has really made the post of President a visible and engaging one. His quest for meeting as many students per month as possible, his often repeated line on asking Indians everywhere to 'think / dream big', his humanism in penning a poem in memory of a legendary singer (M.S. Subalakshmi),his passion for gardening, music, etc., one could go on.

He has changed the expectations and the impressions of the President of India. He has finally made the President not a stiff shirt and a protocol head only meant as a decoration during the republic day. The nexus of Politicians-Bureaucrats-Academicians who owned and kept shifting the post of President amongst themselves all these years had finally been broken. Despite being a bureaucrat-scientist, the creative human being in Kalam took the primary position and I think majority of Indians are proud to have him as the President. That is his contribution, I remember many earlier Presidents were either called 'rubber stamps' or something even more derogatory during Mrs. Gandhi's times.

Now with the most eminent qualification for the only candidate being highly discussed seemingly his loyalty to the Congress first family, looks like we are back to the days of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, now we have Mrs. Sonia Gandhi placing the loyalty of the individual above the pride of the country men.  

Most people will say, 'Shiv-who?', 'achcha Congress-walla', 'Delhi-walla' maybe even better. That is about it. He will be decorating the Rashtrapati Bhavan and Republic Day parade, stiff shirt, well trimmed (oh! we will miss those Kalam locks),  protocol smiles and ability to read the written speech and agree to the government as and when required to will be the deciding factors. Of course, people will come up with him 'being a scholar' (perhaps the most abused term in India, every President including V.V.Giri and Zail Singh must have been at some point called a scholar), that has a 'clean' image (which means he wears the protocol whites well pressed), that he has been around in Lok Sabha and Delhi forever,etc. These are always there for every candidate.

Loyalists have a way of getting paid for their loyalty in Congress, they become Governors, Ministers in the Centre without having to win an election. But, the President post at least ought not be compromised. It has finally become something that the ordinary people can relate to. The ordinary person on the road can look at President Kalam today with a smile and say, 'achcha admi hai' and it is true that  children across the country have said, 'someday I would like to be a Kalam'!

I don't think this could have happened with any of the rubber stamps Presidents earlier. None of them could have made people either relate to them or want to emulate them. Their success in their chosen life, though adequate in the eyes of the power players in Delhi is not something that the ordinary people can understand. Kalam changed it. Now Congress in all probability is about to take us back to the old ways again.

The hopes of a Colonial institution, redesigned to suit a developing Nation forever remained 'tame', Kalam provided the personal strength required to challenge the 'tame' image that stemmed from the Colonial hangover. His personal strength and vision modified and provided a new purpose for the post, it made the post more Indian if not in structure at least in spirit. The ordinary people watch an indecisive leadership settle to comfortable ways out of old habits. Will the Pride of the Nation will be surrendered to The Family Loyalty?