A rather belated post... written oiginally on 22 July 2007.
Pratibha Patil became the first woman president of the country today. She won by a convincing margin, no surprise in this country where politics can make heroes even of criminals, and her offences have been less grave.
When she was first nominated, the Opposition started a campaign against her, the basis of which was an investigation into her past, and every murky deal that she had been a part of that surfaced as a result was splashed across the front pages of newspapers for weeks afterwards. Not that it made much of a difference. The Congress may have been embarrassed, but could hardly withdraw her from the race, that would be tantamount to giving in. They knew the numbers were in their favour, and so I suppose they decided to stick by their decision. The Opposition on the other hand, continued its campaign, staying in the news, and keeping the issue alive.
I don’t know nor claim to understand politics. Its difficult as it is to form an opinion about anything these days, what with most of the media given to dramatization and sensationalisation, not to mention being also sold out to the highest bidder. In such a scenario, I found myself unable to react meaningfully to reports of Pratibha Patil’s various offences, from the co operative bank irregularities to the abetment to suicide, none of which seemed to be her offences anyway, but those of people close to her.
But what I found absolutely impossible to digest were the news reports of her having had a conversation with a Swami long dead through the ‘medium’ of one of his devotees, a woman living in his ashram. Its incredible, and an indication of the state of our politics that she should still have been elected to the high office of the President. And the fact that she succeeds a man as scientifically inclined as Dr Abul Kalam Azad, cannot be more ironical.
I am a woman and I guess I should be happy at least about the fact that women are finally getting their place under the sun. But as it happens, I’m not. I don’t need any proof nor reassurance that there are women around who are competent and confident, and deserving of all the success that a man with the same capabilities might command. And it does pain me to see that often enough these same women are denied opportunities and in many cases, discriminated against, in much more violent and disgraceful ways. However does that mean that one has to subscribe to the success of every woman who ‘makes it’, irrespective of her credentials. I say absolutely not. It would in fact be a disservice.
That however, was the card played repeatedly by the Congress. I am no fan of the Congress party, but I do not for a moment deny their rich tradition of very charismatic and very powerful women leaders over the years. It is sad then that the Congress of all political parties, should have been the one responsible for imposing upon the country, this dubious honour.
Pratibha Patil became the first woman president of the country today. She won by a convincing margin, no surprise in this country where politics can make heroes even of criminals, and her offences have been less grave.
When she was first nominated, the Opposition started a campaign against her, the basis of which was an investigation into her past, and every murky deal that she had been a part of that surfaced as a result was splashed across the front pages of newspapers for weeks afterwards. Not that it made much of a difference. The Congress may have been embarrassed, but could hardly withdraw her from the race, that would be tantamount to giving in. They knew the numbers were in their favour, and so I suppose they decided to stick by their decision. The Opposition on the other hand, continued its campaign, staying in the news, and keeping the issue alive.
I don’t know nor claim to understand politics. Its difficult as it is to form an opinion about anything these days, what with most of the media given to dramatization and sensationalisation, not to mention being also sold out to the highest bidder. In such a scenario, I found myself unable to react meaningfully to reports of Pratibha Patil’s various offences, from the co operative bank irregularities to the abetment to suicide, none of which seemed to be her offences anyway, but those of people close to her.
But what I found absolutely impossible to digest were the news reports of her having had a conversation with a Swami long dead through the ‘medium’ of one of his devotees, a woman living in his ashram. Its incredible, and an indication of the state of our politics that she should still have been elected to the high office of the President. And the fact that she succeeds a man as scientifically inclined as Dr Abul Kalam Azad, cannot be more ironical.
I am a woman and I guess I should be happy at least about the fact that women are finally getting their place under the sun. But as it happens, I’m not. I don’t need any proof nor reassurance that there are women around who are competent and confident, and deserving of all the success that a man with the same capabilities might command. And it does pain me to see that often enough these same women are denied opportunities and in many cases, discriminated against, in much more violent and disgraceful ways. However does that mean that one has to subscribe to the success of every woman who ‘makes it’, irrespective of her credentials. I say absolutely not. It would in fact be a disservice.
That however, was the card played repeatedly by the Congress. I am no fan of the Congress party, but I do not for a moment deny their rich tradition of very charismatic and very powerful women leaders over the years. It is sad then that the Congress of all political parties, should have been the one responsible for imposing upon the country, this dubious honour.
2 comments:
hi there .. the first half of the post was quite intersting .. again, a good topic that i could identify with .. always wondered about the woman (PP) and what political compulsions drove the congress to nominate her, but never gave a shape to my thoughts .. could the congress have done better ? .. what does this politicking mean for us (the blogger and the reader), as in what are the things that go through your mind as you think this topic through further ? .. i guess i was expecting your post to delve a bit more into the political angle you chose in the first half, and then stick to the larger picture before taking a dip into PP's personal characteristics .. basing the post on just one rumour (?) doesn't seem to do the topic justice .. : ) .. what do you think ? ..
I agree with you completely... i did think my argument was nowhere close to convincing, based as it was on just one incident (I notice you choose to call it a rumour.) However it was the one thing I could react to immediately and spontaneously.
As far as the political angle goes, I have to admit, I am only so interested in it. Any more, and I would have to give up my current occupation and devote all my time to research. :-)
Look your concerns are justified, and my blogs might well be incomplete in many respects, and that's precisely what kept me from writing for so long. Because to react intelligently to anything going on around you takes so much time and effort these days. We are living in an age of information overload, a lot of which is manufactured and contradictory. It is designed to send you (blogger and reader) on a wild goose chase. Understanding an issue completely is a near impossible task, at least for me. I would love to write on global warming, the maoist insurgency in the North east, the situation in Kashmir, or Sanjay Dutt's case. But I hesitate because I don't know all the facts, and it might take me an entire lifetime to gather all of them, (that's how complicated some of these issues are.) Does that mean I cannot have an opinion or write about it?
Therefore I qualify my stand by saying that a. these are personal thoughts, and b. that I don't claim to 'understand' completely the situation at hand, and can only react from my limited perspective...
Hope that answers your query...
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