Tuesday, October 30, 2007
First Citizen Farce
It is disappointing to find that in all likelihood, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will be required to vacate his chair of the President of India. It is equally frustrating to digest the fact that Pratibha Patil will be his likely successor to the post of the first citizen of the world’s largest democracy. What is being projected as a symbol of women’s empowerment in India is actually a garbled form of women’s embarrassment. Someone with a history of fiscal fraud and favouritism could certainly be bettered by any other woman, if at all gender is an issue worthwhile enough to have any effect on Presidential election. India can do well without an empowered puppet, at the hand of subtly crude dynastic politics. If at all a woman has to be made the next President of India, why not approach Arundhati Roy, or Kiran Bedi or Lalita Gupte or Kalpana Morparia? Is a woman professor at IIT or IIM or IISc less fit than Ms. Patil for the post of President of India? It remains to be seen what Pratibha Patil or Bhairon Singh Shekhawat or even Pranab Mukherjee (a last-minute bid at sanity, perhaps) does with Kalam’s Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) plan.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It is quite agreeable that Mrs. Patil’s empowerment as the first citizen is a shameful act and a mockery of democracy. However, the names of other persons mentioned in the list having potentials for the presidential candidature also raise doubts. Apart from Kiran Bedi who has exhibited exemplary prowess in the administrative section, Arundhati Ray is definitely a showbiz personality. She is concerned more about creating hypes among the mass and is also interested in personal gains and is apt in utilizing political gimmicks in order to befool the common people. It is unfortunate that not only India but Pakistan and Bangladesh also follow the same politics in case of empowerment of women. In the name of empowerment of women, these countries, for time and numbers, have selected women presidents. Begum Khaleda Zia, Sheikh Hasina and the late Benazir Bhutto are examples of such gender politics. But in all spheres they have proved themselves as fraudulent characters; they are charged of impersonations and have primarily amassed large fortunes while serving their respective nations. Independent India has taught its citizens to have modernized urban views but in the process it has also taught them to learn hypocrisy and other vices that are the products of modernization. Captain Lakhsmi Saigal was a deserving nomination in the previous Presidential elections. But the undercurrent in India politics prevented her from being selected as the President. Until and unless Indian politics comes out of dynasty rule and shun away cheap marketing gimmicks, such crisis would continue to prevail and empowered women would still face disempowerment while Rabri Devi and Mrs. Patil would have the last smile.
Post a Comment