FIRST CITIZEN

What a letdown! Anointing a colourless lightweight as President. My first reaction after Pratibha Patil's nomination for the Presidential poll. A consensus candidate conjured up from desperation, only because the Left did not have the occasion or need to cross swords with her in the past. Being in the political wilderness for long helped, as she had no opportunity to rub anybody in the UPA the wrong way.

But then Patil was the first woman in India to come into the presidential picture (Captain Lakshmi may have contested against Kalam, but hers was a lost cause at the outset). Positive tidbits about Patil appeared all over the media.

She must have some calibre in her if she became an MLA at the young age of 27 in 1962 when she was not even married (She got married three years later). A single woman at a young age becoming a legislator from interior Maharashtra more than 40 years ago is undoubtedly commendable. And educational institutions galore established over the years. Malayala Manorama's wonderful headline 'Pradhamam Ee Pratibha' ( first, this talent) said it all.

But the cookie crumbled with breathtaking speed and the slide was initiated by her. A public speech and what does she come with - a silly line about the Mughal invasion having led to the purdah system to protect women from the invaders. Muslim groups and historians cried foul.
Wonder what her campaign(image) managers were doing?

The media and the BJP smelt blood, and what does Pratibha do? Plays into their hands with her revelations about talking to spirits. It was only a matter of focussing on Maharashtra's sugar belt, her home turf. And skeletons started tumbling out with alarming regularity.

Maybe she is not directly involved in any of the scams. But what does it show? A weak-kneed person turning a blind eye while her relatives make merry. Coming back to the `lightweight' point, has she done anything of note as a politician in her over 40 years of public life? India is stuck with a yes-woman (unless the NDA comes to power at the Centre).

That said, the BJP must take the blame for initiating a sustained dirty tricks campaign against Patil, making it sound like a college election full of tabloid masala about rival candidates. The Congress too did not cover itself with glory, with its attacks on Shekhawat.

A news channel had the SMS question, "Has the public lost faith in the Presidency?". Here is an election where the public does not get to vote and what do those they elect present them with? A no-holds-barred slanging match.

The perfect breeding ground for cynicism.