The dilemma of Presidential nominations in India :: can we have another Missile Man?
BHU has a large campus, lot of programs and students. In the year 2007, we gathered for the convocation in order to receive our degrees. The venue was packed full and students were everywhere. We were not able to see main guests and our professors. Then the chief guest started addressing the students. Because he was far and out of our line of sight, so we gathered around the nearby loudspeaker and started listening to his inspirational speech. He was our beloved and favourite President Late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. That was the dream convocation one can imagine.
I have no idea what happened back in 2002 among political parties that we got him as the most beloved President of India. The party who nominated him at the time might have felt guilty of doing so because of some political developments afterwards. Apart from all those political ups and downs, we had a president who inspired students, yes the future generation: the key players to decide future of their country. All his achievements, publications, books and associations are available in various libraries and online.
The president term is almost over and political parties are in hunt for another one. A president can use his/her powers to overtake prime minister, return bill, stop/execute a criminal's plea and many other things, but no party would like to have a presidential candidate who can be dangerous for them. In 2017, the process of electing president nominees is almost over and we have a ruling party nominee Ram Nath Kovind, and opposition nominee Meira Kumar. I would not have cared for this process of nominating candidates if we did not have Dr. Kalam as a president previously. Both the present nominees carry political background and have served the country in different roles. So I thought to dig a little bit deeper into their profile and see who did what. Even though it is not necessary to carry forward your experience to be elected as president, but if one has performed (not very well defined) enough for the country, more likely he or she will be loved more and may represent our country better.
Political strategies are derived by money, caste and religion; and even president candidate search is not free from these. Caste based strategies already infected present ruling party in selecting its candidate until opposition didn't select their candidate. Fortunately both the nominated candidates belong to similar caste group so the caste card won't play and people have started talking about their work and capability. I wish this was the agenda in debates since the beginning. I'm not interested in caste or religion, I was just looking if any of them can be loved as late Dr. Kalam who could bring the countrymen together by leaving the politics behind.
I searched the credentials of Meira Kumar and Ram Nath Kovind online. Unfortunately, information available was nothing significant. Most of the articles were recent (around June 19) from the media pages. All of them were discussing how they got nominated, what position they were working on, and for how long they worked. That's it! Wikipedia biography can be trusted in case of politicians as it contains a good number of citations and our government portals don't carry biography like wikipedia does. But even Wiki does not have significant information about all the politicians and most of the citations are recent based on news articles on president nomination. I looked into some other sources as well.
** Couldn't open the official profile of Ram Nath Kovind from archive.india.gov.in. Will update the information once I get access to the website.
For a presidential candidate, some of the qualities I am looking for includes: national or international recognition or representation, have been any activist, have written any book, have chaired any game changing project, have associated with any movement, have done significant work as MP/MLA etc. Both the candidates have done their best in representing parliamentary committees. Comparing one to another, Meira Kumar has done better in committee representation and social activism. However, I couldn't find anything that proved to be as significant as the Missile Man.
For the presidential elections we are indirectly responsible as the president is elected by our elected representatives. If our MPs are efficient, free of criminal and corruption activities; then we can possibly expect some reliable decisions from them. There could have been a better face as the next president of India, but we are stuck between the candidates nominated by the members elected by us in the political parties.
I have no idea what happened back in 2002 among political parties that we got him as the most beloved President of India. The party who nominated him at the time might have felt guilty of doing so because of some political developments afterwards. Apart from all those political ups and downs, we had a president who inspired students, yes the future generation: the key players to decide future of their country. All his achievements, publications, books and associations are available in various libraries and online.
The president term is almost over and political parties are in hunt for another one. A president can use his/her powers to overtake prime minister, return bill, stop/execute a criminal's plea and many other things, but no party would like to have a presidential candidate who can be dangerous for them. In 2017, the process of electing president nominees is almost over and we have a ruling party nominee Ram Nath Kovind, and opposition nominee Meira Kumar. I would not have cared for this process of nominating candidates if we did not have Dr. Kalam as a president previously. Both the present nominees carry political background and have served the country in different roles. So I thought to dig a little bit deeper into their profile and see who did what. Even though it is not necessary to carry forward your experience to be elected as president, but if one has performed (not very well defined) enough for the country, more likely he or she will be loved more and may represent our country better.
Political strategies are derived by money, caste and religion; and even president candidate search is not free from these. Caste based strategies already infected present ruling party in selecting its candidate until opposition didn't select their candidate. Fortunately both the nominated candidates belong to similar caste group so the caste card won't play and people have started talking about their work and capability. I wish this was the agenda in debates since the beginning. I'm not interested in caste or religion, I was just looking if any of them can be loved as late Dr. Kalam who could bring the countrymen together by leaving the politics behind.
I searched the credentials of Meira Kumar and Ram Nath Kovind online. Unfortunately, information available was nothing significant. Most of the articles were recent (around June 19) from the media pages. All of them were discussing how they got nominated, what position they were working on, and for how long they worked. That's it! Wikipedia biography can be trusted in case of politicians as it contains a good number of citations and our government portals don't carry biography like wikipedia does. But even Wiki does not have significant information about all the politicians and most of the citations are recent based on news articles on president nomination. I looked into some other sources as well.
| Ram Nath Kovind [1][2]** | Meira Kumar [3][4] | |
| Education | B Com, LLB | MA, LLB, BA |
| Year of Birth |
1945
|
1945
|
| Criminal Cases | None | None |
| Professional Career | Advocate (24 Years) | Indian Foreign Services Officer (15 Years) |
| Years in Professional Career |
24
|
15
|
| Political Career | MP (2 times) | MP (5 times) |
| Years in Political Career |
12
|
24
|
| Position Held | Governor (Aug 2015 - Jun 2017) | Lok Sabha Speaker (2009 - 2014) |
| Ministry Held | None | 1. Social Justice and Empowerment (2004-09) 2. Ministry of Water Resources (3 days) |
| Assets | ~1 Crore (2007 ADR) | ~38 Crore (2014 ADR) |
| Movable Assets | ~12 Lacs | ~2 Crore |
| Immovable Assets | ~94 Lacs | ~36 Crore |
| Liabilities | ~27,000 (2007 ADR) | Nill |
| Committee Member | 1. Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Tribes 2. Home Affairs 3. Petroleum and Natural Gas 4. Social Justice and Empowerment 5. Law and Justice 6. Rajya Sabha House | 1. Indian Parliamentary Group 2. Consultative Committee, Ministry of External Affairs 3. Public Accounts Committee 4. Empowerment of Women 5. Education and Health program 6. Home Affairs 7. Personnel policy of central para-military forces 8. Food and Consumer Affairs 9. Environment and Forest 10. Rules committee 11. CSPOC 12. All India Congress Committee |
| Social and Cultural |
NA
|
1. All India Samta Movement 2. RVAKV Society 3. Ravidas Smarak Society 4. Jagjivan Seva Ashram, Sasaram 5. Meera Kala Mandir, Udaipur 6. Jagjivan Ram Sanatorium 7. Rajendra Bhavan Trust 8. Senate, Patna University 9. Indian Council for Cultural Relations 10. Central advisory for Board of Education 11. DDA advisory council 12. National commission on population 13. National integration council |
| Position with Political Party | 1. BJP Dalit Morcha 2. All India Koli Samaj | NA |
| Other Languages | English | English, Spanish |
| Controversy | Dalit remarks and Bangaru Laxman |
Bunglow controversy |
| Awards | NA | NA |
For a presidential candidate, some of the qualities I am looking for includes: national or international recognition or representation, have been any activist, have written any book, have chaired any game changing project, have associated with any movement, have done significant work as MP/MLA etc. Both the candidates have done their best in representing parliamentary committees. Comparing one to another, Meira Kumar has done better in committee representation and social activism. However, I couldn't find anything that proved to be as significant as the Missile Man.
For the presidential elections we are indirectly responsible as the president is elected by our elected representatives. If our MPs are efficient, free of criminal and corruption activities; then we can possibly expect some reliable decisions from them. There could have been a better face as the next president of India, but we are stuck between the candidates nominated by the members elected by us in the political parties.
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