The United Progressive Alliance-2 (UPA-2), the
ruling coalition of India,
finally delivered a political masterstroke by nominating Pranab Mukherjee, the
present Finance Minister and a seasoned Congress leader, for the post of
President of India today evening in New
Delhi. All the twists and turns, all the politics of
unholy alliances have been put to rest now. Well, hopefully… since even the
most opposed political party would find it very difficult to reject
Pranab Mukherjee. The citizens of India can have a sigh of relief now
at the prospect of having a consensus candidate and a most worthy one for the
top post.
Several political parties within and out of the
UPA-2 have already extended support for Pranab. The National Democratic
Alliance (NDA), the opposition combine of the country, too might very well go in
for a consensus as they failed to find or convince a suitable candidate who
could offer a strong contest. The NDA's decision is expected in a day or two. The Left parties too hardly have a choice to
differ, though they have decided to announce their support or opposition after
formal consultations.
And, Mamata Banerji’s convenient ally Mulayam Singh
Yadav’s Samajwadi Party had already declared support for Pranab. Mulayam
justified the party decision by saying that the three names decided with Mamata
were only suggestions and not at all binding. His decision is significant for other opposition parties, because his roared back to power in Uttar Pradesh on a huge anti-Congress wave. So now, Mamata became the only
person opposed to Pranab and she and her party have been marginalized
clinically. Even then, after being nominated for the top post the magnanimous
Pranab Mukherjee, expressing his gratitude for the great honor, referred to
Mamata as his ‘little sister’ and hoped to get her support eventually.
His name had
been discussed all the while for nearly two months, he had become the
frontrunner in the Presidential race and almost attained the status of a
consensus candidate giving rise to the
question as to why he was not nominated by the UPA-2 in the beginning itself.
Maybe democratically that was not appropriate or maybe the state of political
uncertainty delayed the inevitable. As a result murky and manipulative politics
came to the fore, but finally it was worthiness and honor that prevailed. PA
Sangma is still determined to contest, but his fate has been more or less
sealed.
In Pranab Mukherjee we can have a President who can
guide the Government in times of stress and make effective contribution to the
governance of the country. In the entire history of independent India we have
only one or two Presidents who strongly refused to be mere figureheads.
