India to elect first female president
Pratibha Devisingh Patil nomination for becoming India’s first president is firm but her appointment and selection for the same is a bit controversial.
The controversy seems to take a 360 degree swerve as the support of Congress Party and their enthusiasm level is sufficient to overcome the adversaries from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Countless votes from Indian lawmakers and state legislatures on 19 July remove every grey shade that come before her victory. The results are expected to be declared on 21 July.
But the milestone has been marred by more controversy and mudslinging than any recent contest.
What boosted the confidence of all the incumbents about her success was the honor of getting the first vote in her favor from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This was seen as the clear sign of her victory by the congress alliances.
But the opposition party threw all questions, doubts and bad words upon Patil’s being the fit candidate for the ceremonial post.
Analysts believe that the possibility is that Patil, an unfamiliar personality on the political stage might win more votes because of her unwavering devotion to Congress party leader-Sonia Gandhi and in all Gandhi family.
Adding to this, analyst Mahesh Rangarajan said: “Loyalty seems to have been the major criterion here.”
Senior leader of the BJP, L K Advani didn’t felt shy and very shamefully he said: “She is a person unfit to occupy the highest constitutional office. Going beyond this, the prospective candidate was also humiliated by a series of disclosures about her personal background.
Besides numerous allegations like she is the culprit to shut down the bank opened to supply loans to women due to her family failure to return the money, her victory is seen as he positive sentiment to carry the tradition of privileging the sidelined sections of society.
Her victory will be seen as the victory of the females in the country who are largely being discriminated. If you trust numbers, then in a survey done by the Outlook news magazine in June, around 68% of the 1,238 women feel that Patil is the oblivious choice.