Run ,Dr.Manmohan Singh !...for President

The  media haven't had it so busy in the past few days ...With the Presidential elections literally heating up ,the media got into action after the MM press conference or the Mulayam sorry Didi ,Mamta ,Mulayam Press conference .Quite a few incredible names have been doing the rounds since the   past few months for very humiliating reasons .


Pranab Mukherjee ...well because you can't make him the Prime Minister and he maybe doesn't want to be the eternal bridesmaid .Then ,Meirakumar ,for the same reasons that helped her  gain the speakership (which ofcourse repeatedly saw her speaking schoolteacherish words like ,Quiet ,Sit down )  and also for the number of foreign tours outdone only by the present President .Amma ,in characteristic flamboyance announced that she would support Sangma and why, because he was from a tribal background .What she actually wanted to was to  outdo Mr.Karunanidhi ,who got one up with the First Woman President !Meanwhile , Mr.Sangma maintained that even if he became President his daughter would remain a Union Minister ?And as always Dr.Kalam is in race ..

The citizenry  sipping their evening cups of kaapi and chai were shaken out of their bureaucratic apathy when Didi  with Mulayam ,broke onto their television news to name their three nominees ,Mr.Somnath Chatterjee ,Dr.Abdul Kalam and gasp !Dr.Manmohan Singh !!!!!!!


I have no objection to all three ,who I am sure cannot be any worse than Ms.Pratibha Patil who I am convinced  is the worst President we have seen.Her Presidency just like Mr.Singh's Prime Ministership is the worst insult that the Indian citizen has suffered as yet ...


My personal favourite is Dr.Manmohan Singh .I would gladly support his candidature for  many reasons.One ,it would remove him from the PMship .An economy in shambles with an econmist as head in humiliating and equally humiliating is the fact that he has refused to contest LokSabha persistently ,in the world's greatest democracy .The PM's chair I believe should be held by politicians who have vote bank considerations (which in some indirect way is accountability )and not by academicians who have no scruples .


Two ,it would be a morale boost for the common citizen who perceives him as a puppet PM ,unaccountable ,inaccessible and inefficient and heading the most corrupt cabinet in Indian history .


Three ,the Congress  can also boast that it has brought in change .If it can make Mr.Rahul Gandhi
the PM ,he will have the advantage of being focussed as the change and also have the added advantage of attributing the failures of the Govt, to Mr.Singh .It will also save the poor Indian from Mr.Gandhi's revelries and intrusions and the pain of having to share their daily kanji  with him .
The Congress under his leadership has seldom fared well and that might ring in  another good news
during general elections .

Four ,there cannot be a better post retirement programme for Dr.Singh (though with toddler adamance ,he has insisted that he  will complete his term ) .He has already had a lucrative post retirement career, which must be the envy of the Rengarajans  and the Ahluwalias.This would be another extra term and consider the  offer -sprawling residence ,travels and a heavy pay packet,good media opportunities/exposure  ,post post retirement benefits  , no  work and the honour of being the first PM -President  !


Time to Run Dr.Manmohan Singh...atleast for President ....

The Prince and the Paupers

Election time is festival time in the world's largest demo-crazy .While most of the elite stay back and lament the futility  of voting and revel in their  apathy and the accompanying laziness ,the so called lower classes never fail to impress with their persistent confidence in the constitution and its rights ,which they believe will some day be theirs too.


This Assembly elections saw extensive media coverage,one ,because the largest state was going to vote and most importantly this was a battle between two Yuvarajas.These elections were also considered a heralder of the coming General elections due in 2014 or going by the results, any time now .
I would like to congratulate the winners of these elections and also wish the losers better luck and better planning next time .


The first important lesson from these elections  was the triumph of the election commission .The decision to drape all of Behenji's elephants  (and prompt undraping after the polling ) drew  flak from many but the Commissioner stuck to his decision and played the game on his own terms .The draping of her many elephants might have been a foreboding of evil for Mayavati .Now that the polling is over ,the numbers in many places has resulted in appreciation of the EC and he has had the last laugh .Well done Mr.Qureshi and team !

The second important boost is for the BJP .The desperate party has not only done considerably well but also laid the ghost of Modi's indispensability to rest awhile .While much fuss was made in the media about the political rivalries surrounding Modi's campaigning absence ,the advertisement seems to have helped the BJP gain fair ground .Let us sincerely hope that this does not lead to a resurrection of the RamjanmaBhoomi agenda .


The most important lesson of all has been taught  to our uncrowned Prince of princes ,Rahul Gandhi .As a future Prime ministerial candidate ,he needed to provide a vision for  a stronger and definitely lesser corrupt leadership .People  looking up to him to see a glimpse of the strength of his grandmother or  the charisma of his father were rather disillusioned to see him imitate the populism of too many unmentionable politicians.

Here was a man who could not do a thing as simple as cleaning his home ,set on a Herculean task of cleaning the country .People must have found this amusing .If he had no plan or power (?) he had no business  to behave like a child who found a new toy in the socially oppressed classes .They too must have found him an expensive toy .

While his many gimmicks drew much attention and Ooh la la in the media, the common man seems to have pressed his lips and pouted like P.V.Narasimha Rao.He needs a thorough rework  of his image and his advisers ,if at all any .In a country shamed by the unprecedented corruption in the present government ,all image over- do has to begin from within and from removing the corrupt ,speeding up the investigations and most of all stop telling lame duck coalition compulsion excuses .Without this , food sharing ,breaking the security cordon kind of  dramas will lead him only to oblivion .Let's hope, someone ,dares to tell him this .


Rahul  might  have noble intentions (though it seems improbable) but he has no means and he has no methods.And now he has time until 2014 to introspect and to learn from the example of Akhilesh Yadav .
Lets hope he has learnt his lesson and will go beyond accepting the usual moral responsibility .

Beware the Ides of March !