FEATURE

Who will be the Next President of India?

P M Kamath

Who will be the next President of India? As long as the question is in the realm of speculation, any name is good enough to be considered. Constitution of India prescribes only a few qualifications to be a President. From the point of view this piece, first, he (wherever he is used, invariably it also means she), is to be a citizen of India. Unlike the American Constitution, it doesn’t prescribe him to be a ‘natural born’ citizen. Second, he ought to be 35 years of age and third, he needs to be qualified to be elected as a member of the Lok Sabha.

So formally, very simple qualifications have to be fulfilled by any aspirant to be the next President of India. There is thus, no academic qualifications prescribed; as an example, late Gyani Zail Singh though a non-matriculate, became the President of India. According to Indira Gandhi’s Private Secretary, P C Alexander, Mrs Gandhi chose him for his loyalty to her; he had publicly said that if she asks him to sweep the floor, he will ungrudgingly do it. Additionally, as she was facing a political crisis in Punjab, as a Sikh, she thought it will help her to overcome Sikhs’ anger against her.  On the other hand, there have been scholarly persons like, Radhakrishnan, or Zakir Hussein.

Though, I fulfil all necessary qualifications, I, in the larger national interest, opt out from the race. Then whom will I recommend? First, let me state that it is the prerogative of the Prime Minster (PM) to finally select a person of his choice. Second, PM can select him from a vast and highly deserving list of qualified, highly educated, men committed to public service; names like Mrs. Sudha Murthy of Infosys Foundation or Azim Premji of  Wipro have been mentioned. 

Thus, the field of public service has of course provided in recent times a popular and peoples’ president when Rashtrapati Bhavan was occupied by Late APJ Kalam. But for the men from the field of public service, I was and I am of the opinion that such men should begin first as Vice President of India before they are appointed to the highest position of President.  Then these excellent human beings would get an insider’s knowledge of difference in meaning of politicking and politics. The first term refers to pursuit of political goals for personal gains while politics is seen in the sense of ‘authoritative allocation of values’ in the society. I had written a piece then in June 2002 raising the question: Can Kalam as President Guard the Constitution?  After Dr. Kalam became the President, since I knew him, I sent a copy of my article to him. He wrote back that he had read it. 

Similarly there is a proliferating political field from which PM can pick his choice. Hence, majority of PMs tend to choose a politician for the job since tribal loyalty within the profession of politics is very strong as academics; no academic will prefer a military man appointed as Vice-Chancellor! Thus, assuming that PM will select a person from within the BJP family as they have maximum votes needed in the indirect election to get the next President elected, might, apart from loyalty factor mentioned above, give consideration to caste or region or both.  

Mention of caste reminds me my interactions with K. R. Narayanan whom I had known from the days he was Indian Ambassador in Washington, DC. I never knew that he belonged to SC category. It wasn’t necessary at all as he was a good qualified person to interact with! But his caste was highlighted to make his candidature acceptable to political parties first to the post of Vice President and then to Presidency. I wrote an article carried by more than one newspaper, on “Narayanan for President” in June 1998, criticising highlighting of caste and reducing him from the broad perspective of national president to narrowly as a caste president.

Then whom the BJP will select? May be if BJP says let’s limit the choice to those who have served our party well, will PM choose L K Advani? He built literally the BJP as a strong national party, by taking its strength from two in 1984 to 182 that enabled Vajpayee to become PM in 1998; had been Home Minister and Deputy PM under A B Vajpayee. He had represented Gujarat in Lok Sabha and according public sources he had protected Mr. Modi when he was Gujarat CM from being removed under the concept of Raj-Dharma, soon after the Godhra Massacre and Gujarat riots in 2002. If Advani is made the President, not withstanding pending court cases, PM will be paying back the debt he owes to Advani. Another name he may go for Venkaiyya Naidu, keeping an eye on the BJP’s big push into Southern India or Ramdas Athavale to consolidate alliance with Dalits.

Before I conclude, I wish to add two caveats. First, I must publicly declare, to avoid a charge of conflict of interest that with all these three candidates I have interacted and shared public platforms. Second, I think it is high time India give up Titular Presidency in favour of an Executive Presidency. Of course, if India switches over to Executive Presidency, any one of the three of my names might go down in the history books as the one who presided over such a switch! But the nation will enjoy political stability; avoid wastage of scarce resources, become capable of providing good governance with democracy and gain the advantages of one nation one election and a nationally a strong foreign policy.

Dr. Kamath is former Professor of Politics, Mumbai University and currently, Chairman and Hon. Director, VPM’s Centre for International Studies (Regd.), affiliated to Mumbai University. He is also Adjunct Professor, Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal University, Manipal.