It is always preferable to elect the President unanimously, but BJP seems to be bent up on ‘throwing the spanner in the works’.

    Even though Mr. Shekawat has declared himself as an independent candidate for the post of the President who is determined to fight the UPA’s candidate in the impending election in his individual capacity, the BJP is not fooling anybody.

     As such, it now looks as though a two-cornered ‘Presidential Election’ is a certainty. In a way it is unfortunate because, the ‘august’ nature of the office of the President & the onerous constitutional responsibilities that he is asked to shoulder in times of political crisis demand a person of stature who is also visibly neutral - politically or an ‘apolitical’ person. In the past, this criterion was normally adhered to in the selection of the candidate, which was normally done by choosing him through the broadest possible consensus among all political parties to build a ‘halo of neutrality’ around the person of the President. In the present political scenario in the country with an extremely divided polity, an unanimous election through consensus for a candidate with an impeccable track record like that of Mr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam the out going President, would have been really preferable than through a bitterly contested election.

Shahabuddin Nadeem
Vidyaranyapura ,
Bangalore .