From politicians seeking to return from oblivion to retired holders of high posts to self-proclaimed “statesmen”, every presidential election provides a chance to maverick candidates to earn their brief moment of glory, though they know for sure that they stand no chance in the fight against candidates from the ruling and Opposition parties.
This time too, at least three contenders are being projected — either by their “supporters” or by themselves — as the “best” candidates for the post, one of them being retired chief justice of India, Justice P N Bhagwati and the other being former external affairs minister Bali Ram Bhagat, whose last stint in a public position was as the governor of Rajasthan from 1993 to 1998.
Both of them are being projected as suitable candidates for the top post by two organisations which have made appeals for their selection as a candidate, one to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the other through the media.
Mr Bhagat, who was the external affairs minister from 1985 to 1986 in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet and the Lok Sabha speaker during 1976-1977, has lived in oblivion for about nine years, but the 85-year-old has his case taken up by an NGO called the Shri Shrishambhavi Social and Women Welfare Society.
Representation
While the Congress is trying to persuade its allies to accept Home Minister Shivraj Patil as the UPA candidate in the face of reservations about him from the Left and NCP, the NGO in a representation to Ms Gandhi has asked her to nominate the octogenarian as the candidate.
Calling him a “patron” of SCs, STs, OBCs, women and children, and a socialist and statesman, it says he is the right candidate for the post as he belongs to a backward farmers’ community.
Almost in a similar vein, educationist and founder of Lucknow’s City Montessori School, Jagdish Gandhi, has taken up the case of Justice Bhagwati by making an appeal to all political parties to “unanimously choose” him as an “all-party candidate”.
The logic offered by him is that Justice Bhagwati, as a chief justice, “brought justice from the ivory towers to the doorstep of the poor, the lowly daridra narayans… more than any other judge in the Indian history, made justice accessible to the poorest of the poor, thus fulfiling a Constitutional mandate.”
The four-page appeal ends with a request to all parties to contact Justice Bhagwati at his address, given in detail, and request him to be an “all-party” candidate.
‘Holistic healer’
But unlike the two, Dr Leo Rebello of Mumbai has not waited for others to propose his name. Instead, he has jumped into the bandwagon himself, claiming that being a “qualified holistic healer”, he has some solutions to the various problems facing India.
Claiming that his achievements qualify him to serve his country as the president, Dr Rebello has claimed that his attempt for the post in 2002 was “derailed by political machination”.
“I have not adopted the money-muscle-media tactics of other political parties. Thus, despite numerous recommendations, I have not been nominated to the Rajya Sabha,” he has been quoted as saying.
Due to corrupt practices and partisanship, he never received the Padma award despite numerous recommendations, he claims, adding: “These same corrupt practices have also denigrated the presidential and vice-presidential elections.”
The list of prospective presidents might only get longer, once the notification for the election is announced in a day or two.