PRESIDENT SAM PITRODA!

SUNNY THOMAS

If this time, Pranab Mukherjee is overlooked for Presidency, he must be awarded the Bharat Ratna! His only fault is he has become indispensable for UPA. Cutting across party lines, he would be triumphant should he contest because he has a personal equation with all MPs, especially those who matter. But let’s not cause a political tremor epicentred around 10 Janpath.   

With his eloquence and dignity, Dr Karan Singh would have made a Princely President ten years ago, and he still retains a considerable amount of his charm. But he was seen politically incorrect at crucial times when the country was looking for a President. Proximity to one politician is anathema to others, and Dr Singh has not cultivated a fine blend of political balance that instinctively recommends him to all political parties.    

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari is the rightful choice and an ideal candidate for Rastrapathi Bhavan, and his studied neutrality is much admired in the political circles. But in politics, decisions are seldom taken on merit, and it is emotions and a flicker of excitement built around a person or an ideology that wins the day. And equally relevant is paranoia that Jinnah exploited and got away with, carving out a slice of the country, and that the exponents of Hindutva adroitly played to get a slice of power. But paranoia often burns out leaving a trail of disillusionment.

Rest assured the next President is not going to be a gadfly. When endangered, Congress is the best political party on earth, but in comfortable majority, the Congressmen have a propensity to be the worst! The man behind the mobile phone revolution, Sam Pitroda has no enemies but all admirers! Every political party would like to have a slice of Sam on their side. As though envisioning the political scenario of 2012, the man born as Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda is renamed Sam Pitroda!   

Just think of it, Virginia Wolf is not a wolf but a woman named Virginia Stephen, Marilyn Monroe is Norma Jean Mortenson(Baker), Woody Allen is Allen Stewart Konigsberg, Tom Cruise is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, Mother Teresa is Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Che Guevara is Ernesto Guevara, and Ho Chi Minh is Nguyen Tat Thanh. The games that names play are indeed intriguing. 

Symbolically, the India democracy is far ahead of its American counterpart. Almost quarter of a century before Hillary Clinton was launched into the Presidential race orbit, we had Indira Gandhi adding a new nation in 1971 to the comity of world nations! A decade ahead of a Black man in White House, India had a meritorious President from the Backward Class. It seems India is the testing lab for America, because it does precisely what America is going to do next.      

What President Bill Gates could do to America is what President Sam Pitroda could do to India. He could inspire a generation of technocrats to be innovative, inventive and entrepreneurial, turning Bangalore, Hyderabad and satellite Delhi into Silicon Valleys.  This in turn could raise nation’s competitive edge on the global market.

Looking back, Dr Rajendra Prasad remains the ideal President, who could act as a counterweight to the all-powerful Prime Minister. In fact, if there was one President who could match the authority of the Prime Minister, it was Dr Prasad; but he could never match the popularity and hero-worship that Nehru commanded, which was an envy of monarchs and Presidents and Prime Ministers the world over.

Dr S Radhakrishnan was the tallest of all Presidents, not only by virtue of his physical height but also by virtue of his erudition and intellectual status. He was of the class of George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Winston Churchill; and if all the Presidents were of his stature, India would have enjoyed greater respect in the global scenario.  

Dr Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed died in office; one was a scholar, the other the quintessential gentleman who could never say `no’. So Ahmed could not say `no’ to the Declaration of Emergency, for which he was criticized. Because of his unwavering loyalty to Mrs Gandhi, the President had to endure the nickname `the rubber stamp’, which R K Laxman’s genius capitalized in a cartoon showing a peon bringing the President when he was asked to bring the rubber stamp, and the caption: You brought him here, I only asked you to bring the rubber stamp!  

As Presidents R Venkataraman and K R Narayanan showed maturity and steered clear of all controversies. Abdul Kalam was an eternal mentor and youth icon, whose book The Ignited Minds remained a bestseller even after his demitting the office.  

The only contemporary politician who could make a difference to Rashtrapathi Bhavan is Menaka Gandhi, who would turn the palatial mansion and the Mogul Gardens into a pet sanctuary, especially for dogs and cats!