Tomorrow (17th July 2017) we are going to have Presidential Elections in India. Although the media is making a bit noise about it, it’s totally about the politics behind it. I don’t think media really cares about the qualities of the candidates. It is really interested in Masala. Besides, the Presidential Election is getting coverage because, it’s first during Modi Government. BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) has fielded Ram Nath Kovind as their Presidential candidate and main opposition party according to media, INC (Indian National Congress) has fielded Meira Kumar as their candidate.
Media as usual went on with the line that, BJP has played politics by fielding Kovind ji because of his caste. Also, congress accused BJP of playing politics over caste. So it’s about “politics”. But, is anyone surprised with this politics? Because, that’s what Political Parties and Politicians do! They to politics for power. And funnily after some days INC announced Meira Kumar ji as their candidate, of course because of her caste.
I don’t want to jump into this dirty politics. But, it was necessary to get the context right. I know Presidential Election of largest democracy in the world will certainly get attention in the media. But, looking at the scale of it I just feel the intensity is lost somewhere. Mainly because, media follows Modi ji more than they should. Somehow, it is so obsessed with Modi ji that it gets to ridiculous level, where they start discussing food he eats. Which, frankly I don’t care about. During campaign of this Presidential Election, I asked myself “Should I bother?” I will try to put forward my thoughts on it in this article.
It is true that a President in India has technically no executive role. Theoretically the President of India is the first citizen of the nation and supreme commander of all security forces. Also, he can perform many things both tactically as well strategically (of course taking advice from Prime Minister etc.) But, thanks to media most of us only know President as a person who can accept or reject a mercy petition.
If you ask anyone in India, who was your favorite President of India, one name will most certainly pop up “Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam“. Although he had nothing to do with politics. Although he had no affiliations with any ideology. He was elected as a President. We Indians still feel proud about it. Why? This is the question which lies at the bottom of the “Should I bother?” Once in a news channel’s YouTube episode the anchor asked a journalist “Tell one quality our former female president had which, we can say is at par with Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, Dr. Zakir Hussain or Dr. Abdul Kalam” .. I want to leave you at this open question and you will understand “Why we should bother about Presidential Elections?”
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this article are my own. My employer Autodesk, must not be related to the opinions expressed in anyway possible.
Image Courtesy: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:India_flag_emblem.jpg
