Prez poll: Congress is the major beneficiary Sir, The Presidential election this time, has many interesting, lighter and funny moments.
That Patibha Patil’s comment that she will not be a “rubber stamp President”, the tall claim by all UPA constituents about their historic choice, Ms Patil’s clever and politically intended plan of meeting Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekawat turning into the later calling on her first and the sudden interest of DMK on showing women’s power by organising a rally with Ms Patil’s particiaption are all amusing to impartial observers.
People are well aware that all these empty claims and acts by political leaders are farce. They are almost sure about what actually will happen after Ms Pratibha occupies Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The major beneficiary would be the Congress as it has succeeded in installing a President who will be loyal to them. --V S Ganeshan
Bangalore
Uplift rural women
Sir, Having seen the functioning of Governors in the last 40 years, it is difficult for me to believe that Pratibha Patil, who has already spent a few years in the splendor of Raj Bhawan, a special talent who will be able to maintain grace and dignity of the office of the President of India.
I believe that this office should be above caste and gender considerations and media should not go gaga over Patil being a woman, nor this point should be exploited by Congress. Empowering women is substantive only when oppressed and persecuted rural women are uplifted. --Bhartendu Sood
Chandigarh
Thank the Left Sir, Had the thought of women empowerment occurred, the UPA would have contemplated on a suitable woman as the candidate to succeed A P J Abdul Kalam. Hailing now the selection as the first step towards “women empowerment” is identical to Sonia Gandhi’s claim of her famous sacrifice to become the Prime Minister in the 2004 elections.
It is sheer accident that the mantle fell on Pratibha Patil, the 15th Choice of Sonia, after rejecting 14 other Congress candidates who were not acceptable to other UPA partners for some reasons or other.
Pratibha’s gratitude should first go to the Left parties who opposed tooth and nail other candidates. Now if the NDA is keen in defeating Pratibha Patil, they have to entirely change their strategy, persuade Shekavat to withdraw in favour of some suitable woman candidate the NDA selects to challenge the UPA woman candidate. --Pratibha V Srivatsan
Bangalore
BJP’s political games Sir, BJP and some of its allies in the NDA are apparently bent on having an acrimonious electoral battle for the post of the President, disregarding all the past norms and traditions. Despite electoral arithmetic being decisively against Bhairon Singh Shekawat, he is bent up on contesting as an independent candidate against the UPA candidate .
This decision, seems to be more out of a desire for scoring political brownie points during and after the election rather than for upholding of any democratic tradition. --Shahabuddin Nadeem
Bangalore
Delay the Master plan Sir, The Karnataka State Cabinet’s approval of the Master Plan 2015 of the Bangalore Development Authority, allowing “flexible zoning system with mixed land use pattern” (DH, June 16), will allow commercial activities in places of residential areas.
Families will be impacted in bad ways, when commercial activities are carried out in close quarters to the residential areas. The State Cabinet and the government will not be able to handle common man’s problems adequately. Therefore, the common man will suffer greatly. The implementation should be delayed indefinitely. --K R Venkataramaiah
Canada
Loyalty is her quality Sir, The hot air baloon floated by the Congress and cheered by the Left claims that their nominee represents their commitment to women’s empowerment. After being bullied by the Left into dropping her favourite contender for the President's post, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has chosen a person who is utterly colourless, evokes little or no emotive response and whose sole qualification is her loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family. --J AKSHAY
Secundarabad
