THE NEXT PRESIDENT...

Nowadays election and selection, both are pretty controversial... Every cricket playing nation is displaying its own gimmicks in selection of their coach... So, the politicians are playing ball and doing their own bit to make a mess of the Presidential Election...

As an average Indian, I feel very bad when I see someone of the stature of Pres. Kalam being insulted by petty politicians just for their selfish vested interests... the funny part is, the post of the President is supposedly apolitical… it does not really have any active powers and his role comes into play only when the powerful politicians are helpless in terms of numbers…

Here are some of the comic reasons given by some political parties for not supporting Mr. Kalam's candidacy…

1 - He is not a politician… He is a scientist -- so what? Atleast he has done India proud in more than one way… There are no scams, scandals and criminal cases against his name...

2 - He has had 1 term and no one shud have more than 1 terms… Where were these so-called Communists when Jyoti Basu was ruling over West Bengal for more than 25 years… Where were these Congressmen when Nehru and Indira Gandhi became prime-ministers for more than 10 years? What abt the Karunanidhis and Jayalalithas, who never keep on sitting on the Chief Minister's chair forever?

3 - And the funniest reason of all -- He shud respect the Constitution… Ha!!! Respect? How shud he respect? By indulging in scams and scandals? Or by initiating sectarian violence?

I felt good that Mr. Kalam decided to pull out this shambolic farce… Atleast he maintained his dignity… Most of the polls and opinion surveys have declared Mr. Kalam as a runaway winner… He has clocked atleast 80% votes in most of the polls…

There was a chat on rediff some days back in which a communist leader (Neelotpal Basu) was answering questions posed by the general public… this was one of the most brutal chats I have ever seen… the questions and the accusations made by everyone on the Left Front parties were a clear indication of Dr. Kalam's popularity and the sheer disgust for the Communist parties in the minds of the common citizen…

Another thing which really hurts is, the alternatives to Dr. Kalam are not even comparable to him… They are in the race simply because they are ready to be puppets in the hands of the string holders of Delhi… these ppl have got nominations because their politicial career is finished and they are here in the race because of gender or caste or religion or regionalistic views…

Today, most of the post holders, be it a Prime Minister or a Chief Minister or a President or a Governer, even a Mayor for that matter, are chosen because of caste, religion, language, race or gender and not because of qualification(s)… even sports teams are selected based on regional quota instead of performance…

I just dread the time when kids will ask their parents why were they not born in the reserved category or in a particular region or with a particular mother-tongue instead of being born intelligent and healthy…

Amen!!!