POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 20 July 2007

Change On Raisina Hill

TOUGH TASK AWAITS PRATIBHA

By Poonam I Kaushish

The old has given way to the new on Raisina Hill. India has got a new President in Pratibha Patil at the end of murkiest Presidential election ever. Her victory was a foregone conclusion.  The numbers were heavily stacked in her favour. Never mind that she was the sixth compromise choice of the Congress-led UPA Government. But she proved beyond doubt that she was a seasoned politician and a survivor who had the wisdom and tenacity to keep her cool. Against the backdrop of a virulent tirade by the BJP-led NDA of having protected her kin involved in charges of corruption and crime.

Normally, the election of a new President does not excite any great attention. Thanks to the widely held perception that the Head of State is titular and no more than the Government’s “rubber stamp, even stooge.” This has proved true time and again. However, this time round the election of India’s 13th President will be remembered for many firsts. Foremost, we now have a woman Rashtrapati. (Do we still call her Rashtra-pati?) The poll dragged the office of the President into an unprecedented cesspool of politics, petty politics, unimaginable till the other day. It was marked by open defiance, abstentions -- individually and group-wise, cross-voting and last minute U-turns. It also heralded the beginning of the end game for the 2009 General Election. 

As she assumes office, Patil has a tough task set before her. She will have to put the vicious most-bitterly fought Presidential campaign behind her and start afresh with a clean slate. Tread with extreme caution and sagacity and win the confidence of even those across the political spectrum who opposed her. Bygones must be treated as bygones. She will need to rise above party considerations and rid herself of the perception of being the UPA’s ‘yes woman and a dummy.’ Specially, as she is widely viewed as a Nehru loyalist, who was personally handpicked and promoted by Sonia.

All her actions will be put under the microscope by the Opposition, which will leave no stone unturned to embarrass her and the Government and even look for some excuse to impeach her. Given the allegations surrounding her campaign. Besides, she has a tough job in having to follow Kalam, who endeared himself to the people across the country with his heartwarming humility and transparent honesty. He will for ever be remembered for converting the staid Rahtrapati Bhawan into a pulsating People’s Bhawan by throwing open its doors to the aam aadmi.

Patil’s election assumes great significance on one other crucial score. As India’s President, she will be required to play a decisive role after the next Lok Sabha poll in 2009. It is she who as the President will have to take the call on who will be the next Prime Minister. Critical in the emerging trend of hung parliaments and coalition government’s, resulting from a fractured polity, decline of the national parties and growth of regional satraps.

Unlike the British Monarch, India’s President is neither a ceremonial head nor a glorified cipher. As the elected Head of State, Patil has a much bigger role to play than hereditary monarchs. What is more, she enjoys certain reserve powers which flow from the little-noted oath of office she takes. Whereunder, she solemnly undertakes “to the best of my ability” to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” and also devote herself “to the service and well being of the people of India.” Kindly note it is her ability and not that of her Council of Ministers!

India of 2007 is, no doubt, not the India of 1947. Parliamentary democracy has degenerated beyond belief into a feudal power brokers’ oligarchy. Increasing communalism, casteism and corruption, together with the collapse of the system, cry out loudly for a new dawn and a new deal. In this milieu the President’s role has become even more crucial, if the nation is not to be hijacked by political Dons and mafias.

Patil would do well to take a good look at a speech by India’s first President, Rajendra Prasad on the President’s powers at the inauguration of the Indian Law Institute on 28 November 1960. (It was reportedly “blacked out” under Nehru’s orders but made public for the first time by INFA in July 1977 with the kind help of Janata Prime Minister Morarji Desai.) Rajen Babu, as he was popularly called, questioned, among other things, the tendency to equate India’s elected Prime Minister with the hereditary British monarch. He wanted this question as also the powers and functions of the President “studied and investigated by top legal and constitutional experts in scientific manner.

Rajen Babu also questioned the general tendency to believe that like the British sovereign the President of India was required to act according to the advice of his Council of Ministers. He said: “The executive power of the Union is vested in the President and shall be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with the Constitution. The Supreme Command of the Defence forces of the Union is also vested in him and the exercise thereof shall be regulated by law…” There were also articles which laid down “specific duties and functions of the President…”

Our netagan should seriously ponder over what Rajen Babu had to say and go in for the overdue study. Much has no doubt happened since. Originally, there was no provision in the Constitution which bound the President hand and foot to act in accordance with the advice of his Council of Ministers. But Indira Gandhi used the in famous emergency of 1975-77 to push through the Constitution 42nd Amendment which provided: “There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice.”

At first sight, the Constitution 42nd Amendment seemed to put an end to nagging doubts on the issue. Doubts which in 1969 caused Indira Gandhi to trigger off free India’s biggest political storm and split the Congress. (Remember, she rebelled against the Congress High Command’s choice of Sanjiva Reddy as its Presidential candidate and instead put up V.V. Giri as her “conscience candidate.” Giri won in the close fight.)  But cooler reflection showed that the amendment reduced the President to a mere rubber stamp and, worse, introduced into the Constitutional provision an element of rigidity which could lead to absurd situations.

What, for instance, would a “rubber stamp” President do if, as some eminent jurists asked, a Ministry was defeated on a vote of no-confidence (or otherwise) but refused to resign? What would the President do if the Ministry brazenly went ahead and advised him to do certain things? A refusal to comply would mean a violation of the Constitution. Yet to comply would also be a violation since under the Constitution a Ministry must enjoy the confidence of the House to which it is responsible.

Such conundrums have been posed and would continue to be posed. Ultimately, these point to the need to take a good fresh look at the powers and functions of the President in the light of what Rajen Babu and other eminent people have said---and our own experience vis a vis the Emergency. Not many today are aware that Rajen Babu not only presided over the Constituent Assembly but himself was one of India’s top legal luminaries.

In sum, Patil will have to give all it takes to balance the ever-growing inherent contradictions within our polity. Address basic issues vital to the healthy growth of India’s democracy which, regrettably, is increasingly turning feudal. Her oath of office casts on her the supreme moral duty to perform whenever decisions are taken against the national interest or the well-being of the people. She needs to recall Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote: “Public opinion is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who moulds public opinion goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions.” ---- INFA

(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)