+The fall of Raisina hill.. AGAIN!!

There have been several moments ever since our country's independence which have greatly embarrassed the sane, unbiased and concerned Indian citizen to feel disgusted and disheartened about calling himself Indian. And an incident happening right now, will stand as another milestone in that regard. A parliamentary form of government which India has, has very limited role for the highest seat of governance i.e the President and apart from republic day parade's and official perquisites there has been very little respect that a President holds too. When i remember studying Civics and Politics, my teachers used to address the President as a Rubber stamp!! And maybe until 5 years ago, that was the respect I myself held to the President of this nation, the first citizen of this nation and the Supreme Commander of the armed forces. Everything changed about 5 years ago when one man who hailed from a remote village in Tamilnadu, who turned a scientist and went on to win the BharataRatna for his contributions to the Indian Army, a Poet, a musician and of all a great humanitarian elevated the post of Indian Presidency from Rubber Stampship to Humanitarian Politics... Abdul Kalam is the name.

Maybe after the political leaders of the Indian Independence movement, there hasn't been a person who has won the hearts of people like Abdul Kalam has, and honestly is not achievable in the foreseeable future. And if there was a person that deserved to be in the presidency, at least for the sake of preserving our nation's dignity, it was Kalam undoubtedly. I don't know whats stupidly wrong with politicians that argue that after Babu Rajendra Prasad, no other person was the president for the second time and hence the formality must be continued!!

Gosh, i wish no person was allowed to be the Prime minister or Chief minister for a second term.. We would have done away with one term of a female dictator called Indira Gandhi who with her indiscriminate abuse of power caused the darkest moment of India post Independence in the name of The Emergency, an idealistically blinded statesman like Jyoti Basu who took Bengal a few decades into the past, while the whole nation moved forward and a communal fanatic like Narendra Modi who with his fanaticism has caused enough harm to the nations social fabric and our nation's respectability in the world, to name a few. And if the politicians dont deserve the same treatment as the President, dont you find something terribly wrong with our political system? I agree that even the Presidents in the past like KR Narayanan, Shanker Dayal Sharma, Radhakrishna etc have been eminent personalities and also great statesmen. But what has been different with President Kalam has been his accessability with the common citizen, his active participation in social activities, his association with children and his love for being a human, untainted by the tainted politicians. Even when someone asked him if he wanted to be president for the second term, he humbly said he'd wanted to go back to teaching. Ask the same question to an existing minister, MLA, MP or even a municipal corporator and he'd kill or slaughter to cling on to the same position of power. Maybe the greatest achievement of the NDA while in power was to bring someone as respectable as Kalam to the presidency.

However, Utopia cannot continue forever and today The President of India, My President forever will be stepping down and another Rubber Stamp will be coming into his place. And the funny part being, she's the rubber stamp for another rubber stamp!! Have you ever seen a Bullock Cart with two humans and another lady sitting on the Cart and whipping the two and running the show? Well, thats precisely how the next years of our politics will be. Sonia Gandhi holding the reins over the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and our soon to be President Mrs Pratibha Patel! And the sole reason why President Kalam was not let to continue for the second term is due to his straightforwardness with which he has embarassed the UPA government on more than a few occasions. And hence though he enjoyed over 70% of the support of all politicians and a vast majority of Urban Indians wanted him as the President ( as revealed by several polls), the Congress and their lady in charge wanted someone who would nod his or her head to every stupid action the government would take, another rubber stamp, another symbolic figure and what best than a woman, a total blind follower to the Nehru Gandhi family than Pratibha Patel.

I certainly have no problem having a woman president and it certainly would have set a great precedent having a first woman president. And there have been numerous women who have contributed in some way for the upliftment of downtrodden women, or active politicians or women who have fought for a cause and made an impact. Maybe a Medha Patkar, a Menaka Gandhi(the only peson whom i repsect in the whole family), a Kiran Bedi etc. Sorry if I have missed many names, but I am sure all these women have contributed some value to society. But what has our honourable soon to be president Mrs Pratibha Patel contributed, except being literally a rubber stamp to the Nehru Gandhi family!! And due to her sincerity she was climbed the political ladder to even become the president of this nation, from almost being a total stranger to 99% of the Indian population. And I am not an anti congress guy, except for their blind worshipping of the family, the modern dynasty which has been ruling this nation and in my opinion killing the spirit of this nation with idiotic politics, fallible statesmanship and masked dictatorship!

I am neither against symbolism. It sure feels good to think of a woman as the the first lady of the nation. It also felt good to have a Muslim. Next we might have a christian, next a budhist, next a physically challenged, maybe a lunatic and finally a eunach(as if we dont have enough of them in the politicians today, no disrespect meant to eunachs please)!! After all, they are a minority too! Please dont get me wrong, but symbolism is acceptable, but not always appreciable at the cost of the deserving. The congress and the UPA had a vast number of leaders like Somnath Chatterjee, Pranab Mukherjee etc who could have made very respectable presidents. Ofcourse they might not be as good rubber stamps as Mrs Sonia Gandhi would have wanted.

There was a poll conducted on IBNLIVE and more than 90% of the voters claimed they lost respect and confidence on the Presidency in India. And I am among of them. And I am sure many of you reading this essay would agree with me, but we are helpless in this system of politics where we only choose our local representatives hoping they would bring in the leaders we like, but many a times this remains wishful thinking. President Kalam will be a happy man going back to what he does best, touching and changing hearts. He will go back to teaching or just talking to students and till the end of his life and maybe mine, He will be my President of this nation.. As for Pratibha Patel, well I just hope and pray that some sanity prevails in her mind and does not become a total puppet to Sonia Gandhi. I hope she upholds the respect that President Kalam brought to this office. But again its merely wishful thinking. We surely have learnt in the past what rubber stamp presidents have done to this nation, and lets just hope that though Raisina hill has fallen, fallen greatly, lets just hope it doesn't fall as bad as it did in the past, like in 1975!