Sunday, June 03, 2007

The Presidential Race: Your choice?

As the term of current President His Excellency APJ Kalam is close to ending, the hunt for the next President has gain impetus. All the major political parties have short listed their Presidential candidate.

The BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) is strongly promoting the name of current vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the names coming out of various congress camps are of Narain Dutt Tiwari, Karan Singh and Sushil Kumar Shinde. The CPM is for its old hand Somnath Chatterjee. The name of former chief of Infosys Narayan Murthy and the reigning superstar of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan courtesy Bade Bhaiya Amar Singh can also be heard in the corridor of power.

In recent days, the race for Presidential candidate has taken a new twist. APJ Kalam has shown no interest to continue for the next five year tenure and has supported the candidature of former Infosys chief Mr. Murthy many a times. .On the other hand in recent press meet, Narayana Murthy has shown his reluctance to join the race for the President ship. This makes all the political party of India to fight it out among them and push their party candidate to the top most post of the country.

The majority of people who have been asked to give their response prefer the current President to continue. Whereas some people and I included have strong objection to candidature of Mr. Murthy and Amitabh Bachchan.

I feel the President post is political to the core and we need someone who knows Indian politics and is aware of problems at the grass root level. The President should be someone who has put his whole life in Indian politics. With due respect to Mr. Narayana Murthy, the former chief of Infosys, I am of opinion that running a $ billion company with top class engineers and managers is much easier a task then running the current Indian Politics that is entirely in appalling state. Our experience with APJ Kalam, a great human being and an extra ordinary nuclear scientist has shown the limitation of a person from non-political background in dealing with political issues like Afzal Guru’s mercy plea and imposing the president rule in Bihar.

Just having great vision will not help the country, we need someone who can implement those vision and in very short period of time. The President post also demand a strong political person who can keep check on all the politicians / parties and can take a path breaking decision to improve the social life of Indians. Right choice should be made.

So who you think should be our President? Should it be Mr Tiwari or Mr Shekhawat? Or do you still prefer a person from totally different field like IT or Movie Industry? Please give your comments. It’s a matter of national importance.

-Stella Roy

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

who has written that blog? its surely not u! - u r sweetu

Dev said...

Hi Stella,
I have got to disagree with you on this one. I would root for Mr. Murthy. Unfortunately the President of India has very limited powers certainly not enough to change the political scenario. So in that context it really doesn’t matter what his/her background is. In most cases it is a figurehead a face to be presented to the rest of the world. That is why you would want to have a face that is recognizable and respected. And if he happens to understand the needs of the country it would be that much more helpful in streamlining our foreign relations. Maybe it’s time we had a professional approach to politics. It would be nice to see what would happen if politics were run like a business enterprise, it would certainly be better than it is now. Of course that would have to remain merely a speculation, as it can’t happen in our existing setup. I’m not too knowledgeable on politics so what I said may not make much sense therefore I must thank you Stella for giving laymen like me an opportunity to air our views.

Devasis

Stella said...

Dev I like your comments and I always wait for your feedback. Your comments forces me to think about my own opinion sometimes on various issues.

Now coming back to Mr. Murthy, Dev I was also in favor of Mr. Murthy sometime back. But after his fight with Mr. Deve Gowda, the ex PM of country I was forced to change my opinion about him. The handling of his debate with Deve Gowda placed him in very bad postion in terms of handling a political issue.

I hope you agree with me. Awaiting your response Dev.

-Stella Roy

Anonymous said...

my choice is abdul kalam

Dev said...

Hi Stella,
I haven’t really been following the fight but after going through whatever information I could glean on the controversy, I find it would be wrong to place the blame squarely on Mr. Murthy. Both are to blame. Mr. Gowda is within his rights to ask for the progress on Bangalore airport as well as the utilization of the land obtained from the government. He is however not within his rights to ask about the performance of Infosys, contribution to society by Mr. Murthy or to ask Mr. Murthy not to meddle in Bangalores affairs. His biggest fallacy was probably the way in which he asked and perhaps the intent behind it. It looked like he was more concerned over loosing the power / control on Bangalore. Mr. Murthy on his behalf should not have resigned in a huff, he should have given the information which he ultimately did. I would like to look at it from the stand point of the people of Bangalore, from whom to they stand to benefit more. It seems to me the bone of contention was why was Murthy agitating for better infrastructure as well as the control of Infosys over the corridor between Bangalore and Mangalore. True Murthy may have self-interest because it benefits his company but it benefits every one else too especially the people of Bangalore and that is what politics is meant to be. As a layman what I can understand is it is a system for looking after the well being and betterment of the people within the framework of the constitution. Unfortunately it has become a dirty word now. It is now more about amassing power which comes from control so that they can profit from it. In such a scenario I would put my bet on Murthy. At least he understands the language of deliverables and timelines. I can at least hope for that highway, hospital, school, airport. On the other side everything is drowned in a pool of words.

Devasis

Srinivasa Hoddety venkappa said...

I agree with you to a certain extent but my vote goes to the "MISSILE MAN OF INDIA - Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam" He is eligible for nth no. of times and I strongly support him.

Srinivasa Hoddety venkappa said...

Also i would like to add that mr. Narayana Murthy is unfit person. he doesnt have respect for National Anthem of India in its original theme. I hope you with many others know about Mysore incident. Thanks

Anonymous said...

Hi stella, i am agreed with your points.... but the most eligible candidate as on today is our president Mr. Kalam....i hope u will also agree with me!!!!!!

Dev said...

Hi Stella,
Sorry I think I came down a bit too hard on my last comment. I guess I can be very opinionated at times and that can rub people the wrong way. I can understand your apprehensions about the suitability of Mr. Murthy for a political position. Most probably you are right. I may have been influenced by my distrust for politicians. I have nothing specifically for Mr. Murthy, what I was trying to say was that I believe a person with a background in managing business may be more efficient in executing solutions to the problems we have in India as compared to a politician. It does not matter who that is it may be Mr. Murthy or Rattan Tata or anyone else it does not really matter. Bear with me I can be a jerk at times. Keep writing and provoking us nonetheless. It’s very stimulating.

Devasis

rohanbala said...

Dear Stella:

I just read your blog on the "Presidents Race - Your choice".

From the recent happenings, I am inclined to feel that the "Hunt" for the New President seems to be as difficult as the one for the Indian Cricket Team Coach, since many names cropped up - starting from Mr Narayana Murthy, AB, Pranab etc etc and ofcourse a second term for Dr APJ Kalam and finally the Congress with the concurrence of the Alliance parties have proposed the name of Mrs Pratibha Patil (a name not very familiar to many).

And today's papers carry the news of the emergence of a possible candidate - Ms Fathima Beevi (the former Supreme Court Judge and former Governor of Tamilnadu) as the choice of the newly formed 8 party third front.

It would have been nice if the Third front had initiated this move much earlier than the Congress.

My choice for the post is: A person who is bold with impeccable records (whether male or female) and who should call a spade a spade and who should exercise his power without any fear or favour to anyone.

Anonymous said...

Dear Stella ,
I am agree with your observations about Dr APJ Kalam & Narayana Murthy and advised you not to change your opinion. I am also not agreeing with the continuation of the current President. The choice of Ms Sonia Gandhi for Ms Pratibha Patil as a President is a good decision. The positive points of Ms Pratibha for president post are bold, educated, political background, familiar with ground reality of village culture and poverty. She will certainly prove better president.

Vijay Singh

Unknown said...

The President Race: My Choice

Hi Stella,

So finally we had good topic to discuss on. I am not totally dis-
agree with your opinion.

But you know today's political situation in India... everyone seeking for the money they don't mind about the poor and illiterate people.

Mr Tiwari or Mr Shekhawat? who ever might be the situation is same.. no use to the public. So in this case
"Great Vision" is strictly required. So they can reduce (not supportive) the fraud and cheating.
Mr.Tiwari and Mr.Shekhawat these two candidates supported by the top two political parties in India...
These two parties aim is to gain the money. So they will support the ir candidate who has the same agenda.

IN POLITICS BORN FOR THE PEOPLE
TO SAVE THE PEOPLE... FROM BAD SITUATIONS
TO HELP THE PEOPLE FROM THE BAD POLITICIANS...

Thanks & Regards,
Srinivas P



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