India’s tryst with No. 13

The 12th presidency had been in the news for all the wrong reasons, undermining the dignity of the highest office of the nation. The run-up to the 13th presidency did not add lustre to our democracy either. The candidate, reluctantly forced on the ruling party, emerged in the wake of political shenanigans never seen before.

The manner of campaigning, with insinuations and accusations, was unbecoming of the high office. A very experienced politician who was good material for Prime Minister could not get his due because that appointment is reserved for the ruling family. In the circumstance, the best thing for him is to enjoy long walks in the Rashtrapati Bhavan grounds, as he is reported to have once said. His absence from active politics may prove costly for his party but that is a different matter.
Pranab Mukherjee won the contest with a thumping majority. This was as much due to his being his party’s nominee as the fact that he enjoyed much acceptability across party lines. In his long career in politics, Mr Mukherjee has been very loyal to his party except for a short period of three years when he had gone out of the party after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. He had the temerity to put his hat in the ring for the post of Prime Minister. This upset the ruling family and the sycophant brigade. There was nothing wrong in his doing so. It was in accordance with past precedent. On the deaths of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then President, Dr Radhakrishnan, appointed Gulzarilal Nanda, the senior member of the Cabinet, as interim Prime Minister till the ruling party chose one. After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Giani Zail Singh, the then President, made Rajiv Gandhi the Prime Minister without waiting for the ruling party’s choice. Be that as it may, Mr Mukherjee’s bid created a trust deficit both in the ruling family and its loyalists. After his return to the party, he played a key role in the party and in the corridors of power in Delhi for decades. He has been the party’s troubleshooter. In the absence of an elected Prime Minister, he carried out his duties as the Leader of the House creditably. He was chairman of 66 per cent of the empowered groups of ministers. His going out from active politics will impact the ruling party.
Mr Mukherjee’s critics have been blaming him for the downslide in the Indian economy during his tenure as finance minister. He alone cannot be held responsible for it. The Cabinet collectively as well as the ruling party supremo, who has all the authority but no accountability, must share the blame. Several mindboggling scams countenanced as “coalition dharma” and all the lavish largesse, like MNREGA and Food Security Bill for building votebanks, have been the other major factors. Rajiv Gandhi had said that 85 paise per rupee allocated for development got siphoned off before reaching the intended beneficiaries.
With the instrument of governance so badly corroded, the figure on this account may now be even higher. In any case, a good President need not necessarily have been a very successful finance minister.
The inauguration of the 13th presidency took place on July 25, 2012, in a very well organised ceremonial function in the Parliament House. Military precision and splendour were its hallmark. Prior to the function, the incoming President very appropriately went to pay homage at the samadhi of the Father of the Nation. Our first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, was sworn in at the Durbar Hall in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Subsequently, for good reason, the venue was changed to the Parliament House. A few weeks earlier François Hollande, the new President of France, was ceremonially sworn in at Elysse Palace with pomp and ceremony as per the tradition in his country. In view of the economic crisis in his country, he announced a 30 per cent cut in his salary. Watching the two functions in Paris and Delhi on the TV screen, some thoughts came to me. The French President laid a wreath at his country’s War Memorial before arriving at the Elysse Palace for the swearing-in. Our President is the Supreme Commander of the armed forces. After the inaugural function in the Parliament House, it would have been appropriate for him to lay a wreath at Amar Jawan. The second thought was of protocol. As a serving governor, I attended the swearing-in functions of both Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil. In the latter case I found that perhaps on account of coalition politics, the laid down protocol in the Table of Precedence was violated. The then chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, whose party’s support was crucial to the government, sat in the front row, while the governors of their states were in the second row. In the case of all other states, the governors sat in a row before their chief ministers.
This tradition of expediency must not continue. If the Table of Precedence is not followed rigidly for the inauguration of the President, it sends out a wrong message, tarnishing the sanctity of the occasion. The third point is the need for a cut in the salary and perquisites of dignitaries when we are faced with a financial crisis.
The acceptance speech of President Mukherjee was most appropriate for the occasion. It was noticeable that along with the names of other stalwarts of our nation, he mentioned only one name from the ruling family and not of successive generations as is the norm nowadays. His reference to the fight against poverty, the fourth world war (terrorism), tribute to the security forces and so on, was much in keeping with the occasion. He appropriately added, “We are all, across the divide of party and region, partners at the altar of our motherland.”
It is a fallacy that the President of India is only a ceremonial post. As a general rule he is required to act on the advice of his Council of Ministers. He has to exercise discretion when a government loses its majority in Parliament, in selecting a Prime Minister when no party has an absolute majority, and in deciding on dissolving Parliament. Tajamul Hussain, a member of the Constituent Assembly, rightly stressed in the Assembly, “The President should not be a mere tool in the hands of the ruling party.”
With our fractured polity and the fact that no party is likely to win an absolute majority, the coming years will pose a serious challenge. A seasoned and respected politician of Mr Mukherjee’s calibre should amply measure up to the challenge. He is no longer a member of any party. He is the President of the people of India and the honoured symbol of the nation. It is the duty of all in the country to provide him unstinted support and show him the highest regard.
Number 13 has been the President’s lucky number. Let us hope that the 13th presidency proves lucky for the nation.

The author, a retired lieutenant-general, was Vice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and
Jammu and Kashmir