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What stops Modi from giving India a Hindutva President?

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Ashok K Singh
Ashok K SinghMay 28, 2017 | 17:49

What stops Modi from giving India a Hindutva President?

There is one unsurprising element in the forthcoming election for the office of the President. The ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has garnered a majority, albeit thin, in the electoral college. By implication, the disparate opposition parties have no numbers to spring surprise.

Barring the arithmetic, the rest is in the realm of surprise and uncertainty for now.

And that element, the factor of surprise, is a weapon in the hands of BJP's duo of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. They know that in the given political calculus of the Electoral College, springing last-minute surprise on the political opponents will send their nominee to the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

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And taking opponents by surprise is Modi's hobby.

For that the BJP has to keep the name of its nominee secret till the last moment. Having seen Modi-Shah work in the last three years, one can say with certainty that speculation about probable presidential names is mere speculation and nothing more.

As for the Opposition, invited by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, 17 parties met over lunch in Delhi but they have not disclosed the name of their candidate.

There are a couple of other unsurprising factors and certainties one must consider while speculating about NDA's nominee.

Firstly, Modi won't send a Rajendra Prasad, a Zakir Hussain, a KR Narayanan — all scholarly, men of integrity and upright- to the President's house. They generally played to the rulebook, didn't transgress the limitations imposed by the Constitution on the office of the President.

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Someone like Kalam would have been an ideal candidate to replace the incumbent Pranab Mukherjee. Photo: PTI

But they, especially Prasad and Narayanan, weren't the people who could keep their conscience prisoner to the demand of realpolitik. They wouldn't shy away from chastising the government on its transgressions, could go beyond the script if need be but would themselves never transgress the Constitution.

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Modi would also never install a Shankar Dayal Sharma, who as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha and later as the President chose to speak his mind, surprising the Congress loyalists. Unlike Prasad and Narayanan, he had held party and ministerial positions under former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and was supposed to remain loyal to the party that had nurtured him.

Under Modi, there is no case for a Giani Zail Singh. A loyalist of Indira Gandhi, he crowed that he could sweep floors if ordered by her. Steeped in durbari culture and used to palace intrigues, Zail Singh turned out to be gullible and fell victim to political manipulations.

He was inclined to tread on unchartered course and even toyed with the idea of taking unprecedented, unconstitutional steps against the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Does an APJ Abdul Kalam Azad fit the bill? Scientist and scholar and from the minority community, he was largely non-controversial. A nominee of the BJP-led Vajpayee government and unwisely opposed by the Congress, someone like Kalam would have been an ideal candidate to replace the incumbent Pranab Mukherjee.

Someone like Kalam wouldn't threaten the existing political equations within the ruling dispensation or in the government. A minority in President's office could reassure the worried minorities, even in a manner of tokenism. Such a person wouldn't calm the troubled waters in the country but could send a desirable signal.

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Modi and Shah could also put the Opposition parties in a delicate situation with such a strategy. It would help soften a section of the Opposition who, though disparate and disorganised, are facing Modi with their backs to the wall.

Invited by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, 17-opposition parties met over lunch in Delhi but have not disclosed the name of a likely candidate.

But herein lies the rub. Much water has flown under the bridge since Vajpayee headed the NDA government. Words and phrases like magnanimity, grace and consensus have been erased from the political lexicon in Delhi.

This is Modi sarkar. This government's strategy is to look for confrontation where there is none. Disruption is the sine qua non of the government's philosophy.

Confrontation, not consensus is the second unsurprising element that will determine Modi's choice of the presidential candidate.

Thirdly and most importantly, the last three years of the Modi government suggest that the new occupant of the President House has to be someone unconventional. Not a Dalit like Narayanan, not a Muslim like Zakir Hussain or Kalam, not someone like Zail Singh, not even a supine, somnolent and listless personality like Pratibha Patil who became the first woman to reside at the Raisina Hill.

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The other question is: Will Modi choose a person who doesn't match Gopal Krishna Gandhi, a likely candidate of opposition parties, in stature? Photo: PTI

In only one respect Modi has been predictable. He seems to have developed a fancy for non-entities and unexpected persons to put in the chief minister's seat and fill senior positions in the government. Raghubar Das in Jharkhand, Vijay Rupani in Gujarat, Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana and Yogi Adityanath in UP fit the bill of Modi's unpredictability.

They have one thing in common. They are from the RSS or Hindutva stable and are committed to the Hindutva cause.

On the criteria of Modi's penchant for throwing surprises, Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and M Venkaiah Naidu don't seem to qualify. They are not totally unsung and will offer no surprise element to the race. Also, the Union Cabinet, which already suffers huge talent deficit, will be further reduced to a motely group of non-entities.

Will Draupdi Murmu, the governor of Jharkhand, a woman and of Scheduled Tribe origin be Modi's choice? But she is not from the RSS. Najma Heptulla — a Muslim, a woman, and with great experience — but again she is not from the RSS or Hindutva stable.

Will Modi's pick for the Raisina Hill be a non-RSS, non-Hindutva person is a million dollar question. If not now, then when is a question that must have crossed Modi's and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's mind.

The other question is: Will Modi choose a person who doesn't match Gopal Krishna Gandhi, a likely candidate of opposition parties, in stature?

Does Mr Modi care?

Last updated: May 28, 2017 | 17:49
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