Who is our next president? Take a pick..

Do we really have saying on who is our next president? Not really!! We don't have any saying on the decision.

As per my understanding, its done by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both houses of the Parliament and the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies (Vidhan Sabha). The election uses the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional representation. Voting takes place by secret ballot.

Since we don't have any saying on selecting our next president doesn't mean that "We don't need to care who is going to come next ?" No, we have every reason to worry about because as a citizen of India we are going to be indirectly affected by it. So before we go and dig deep on it, lets first get to know some info which I myself didn't know about the President seat.

As soon I entered the words "India president election" in the Google search, I was ended up with number of sites in the search results. The first site itself had loads of information and mainly all details I was looking to get. I am going to use some from that site on and off. If you want read more, you are more than welcome to check it out at President of India from Wikipedia.

Like many people, I always wondered since President doesn't have not many power vested on him, why do we have the seat at the first place. If he can't do anything beyond the limits of ruling government and execute any official plans for the country, why we have to the post at all.

Why do we have the President seat?

-- Start of the WIKI content--

India became formally independent from the United Kingdom on August 15, 1947. However, the country remained a Commonwealth Realm, and continued in a personal union relationship with the other countries who each regarded the same person as their monarch and Head of State. The Monarch of India was represented by the Governor-General of India, now appointed by the King of the United Kingdom upon the advice of the Prime Minister of India, instead of the British government.

This was a temporary measure, however, as the continued existence of a shared monarch in the Indian political system was not considered appropriate for a truly sovereign nation. The first Governor General of India, Lord Mountbatten, was also the last British Viceroy of India before independence. He soon handed power over to C. Rajagopalachari, who became the first (and only) ethnically Indian governor general. In the meantime, the Constituent Assembly led by B. R. Ambedkar worked on drafting independent India's Constitution. The drafting was finished on November 26, 1949, and the Constitution was formally adopted on January 26, 1950—a date of symbolic importance as it was on January 26, 1930, that the Congress Party had first issued the call for complete independence from Britain. When the constitution took effect, the Governor General and King were replaced by an elected president, with Rajendra Prasad serving as the first President of India.

The move ended India's status as a Commonwealth Realm, but the republic remained in the Commonwealth of Nations. Nehru argued that a nation should be allowed to stay in the Commonwealth simply by observing the British monarch as "Head of the Commonwealth" but not necessarily head of state. This was a ground-breaking decision that would set a precedent in the second half of the twentieth century for many other former British colonies to remain in the Commonwealth after becoming newly-independent republics.

--end--

The above explain clearly tells why we need the President seat. Glad I was wrong!! Otherwise, I would say why in the hack they have this seat all along. Anyways, now we know why the President, we surely want to know what are his powers ? Is he just a rubber stamp or has some good powers?

What are President Powers?

--start of the wiki content--

Executive Powers
The Constitution vests in the President of India all the executive powers of the Central Government. He appoints the Prime Minister who enjoys the support of the majority in the Lok Sabha. He also appoints the other members of the Council of Ministers and distributes portfolios to them on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The Council of Ministers remains in power during the 'pleasure' of the President. In practice, however, the Council of Ministers must retain the support of the Lok Sabha. As long as the majority in the Lok Sabha supports the government, the Council of Ministers cannot be dismissed.
The President is responsible for making a wide variety of appointments. These include:
Governors of States
The Chief Justice
Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts
The Attorney General
The Comptroller and Auditor General
The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners
The Chairman and other Members of the Union Public Service Commission
Ambassadors and High Commissioners to other countries.
The President also receives the credentials of Ambassadors and High Commissioners from other countries.
The President is the Commander in Chief of the Indian Armed Forces.
The President of India can grant pardon or reduce the sentence of a convicted person, particularly in all the cases involving punishment of death.
The President of India can remove the Prime Minister or other Union ministers from office, although this is never done in practice unless the Prime Minister loses majority support in the Lok Sabha.

--end-

He also has Judical, Legislative and Emergency Powers. He plays a major role when we have National or State Emergency.

I think I should take my word back and start to recollect my History lessons from my school time. I was wrong again about less power vested on the President. Now I know President too have very high powers including throwing the ruling government if needed on certain situations.

After getting answers for the most important questions, do we still think that we don't care who is going to be our Next President ?! I think we do care right!!!

OK,lets say we do care now, what can do about it is the next question ?!

What can we(I) do ?!

As I mentioned in the beginning, we can't do anything since it all one by electoral votes. But in this Internet era, we can always raise our voice and show our support thru petitions to our Government. In my previous post, I already talked about the Petition/campaign which ran by an youngster appealing to increase our current President Dr.Kalam's tenure. If you think you are one among the millions of fans and like to support the campaign, you can log on to the site http://www.petitiononline.com/apj/ and put your sign on the petition.

If you think we have to look out for a new president who has better dreams than Dr.Kalam and who can also act better. We don't have choice other than requesting our big political parties to select good person to nominate who can do a better job.

As for I know, currently we have few are already in the talks:

Big B - Samajwadi Party intends to propose his name, and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party.

Karan Singh
Somnath Chatterjee
TN Sheshan

Some IT folks also started suggesting, Narayana Murthy's name. I think it will be a long list this time.

So Take your pick. My pick will be to support the campaign to increase Dr.Kalam's tenure for another 5 more years.. I think he did a better job and will be able to do more in his next term.

Hon.Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam - Can he continue his tenure as President another 5 years. What do you all think ?!

I received an email from my friend about a petition. This is not an usual petition that we see it on and off in our Indian mailboxes. Its an unusual once.Its about our Next president. Our honorable president period ends by 2007.

So Some youngsters of INDIA set a site given below for requesting the Indian government to extend his period for the next five years. They are requesting that if you are willing Dr.Kalam to continue as president then you can enter your support in that website. http://www.petitiononline.com/apj/. They also requested to forward this link to as many Indians we can.

We had a hot discussion on this topic yesterday when I met few friends in a small get-together. I heard 2 school of thoughts during the conversation. Few of us liked the idea of signing the petition to insist Govt. Of India to consider Dr.Kalam to continue his president ship. Few others didn't like him to continue .

We deep dived into the past and facts, tried to come to some sort of conclusion. But we end up nowhere. Let me give a snapshot of the conversation.

Friend E: hey vijai, did you saw the email I sent you on Dr. Kalam's tenure petition?

Vijai(myself): Yeah, I saw that. It is really good that people put forth these kinda of petition to raise their voice whether its being considered by the government or not. I like the idea and might support it.

Friend J & K: Whats the petition exactly about ?

Friend E: Its about the campaign to increase the tenure of our current president Dr.Kalam. There is a online petition and if you like it, you can sign and give your support

Friend J: Oh! OK! I don't think I will support it.

Friend E: Why not ?! He did a lot of things mainly to encourage youth community to dream and think about future. He is also the one to dream about us being the superpower in 2020. No other president had done such things. I think he did pretty good as a president. Especially I am honored to say that a scientist being the president of our nation.

Friend J: May be he did things to evoke some curiosity among the youth. But he is a failure as a president because he never dedicated himself to any path or plan to guide us all to the Superpower 2020 idea. He just kept giving speeches and wrote few books about it but never had an exact plan to do it. Anybody can give this kinda of speech but it only matters if you do it in action.

Friend K: I might agree with J. He has a point. I read his recent book and he seems to lead lot of big teams in the ISRO and other organization. Been a leader, he should have take his plans to the field and tried out. He didn't seems to be ready to do it. He wanted us or the government to do it.

Vijai: Atleast he gave us the plan to follow. He couldn't do anything because the government tied his hands. As a president, I don't think he has any power to implement projects for welfare of the nation. According to my knowledge, he can only guide the government to take proper steps towards the future. Who other president gave this kinda of plan or path for the future or our country ? They just come and go without making any impression among the people. But Dr.Kalam, he is a real visionary and wanted youth to lead the future of our country. He also talked about our economy and has plan on how to bring back villages and connect them to the mainstream. He has real good research facts on different aspects of our country.

Friend E: He is not a pro government president . He seems to not just sign any bills sent by the government. He tries to question the government for the benefit of it and then only take decision to sign on them. Lets say Zail singh, what did you do other than just signing papers for Rajiv Gandhi government ?

So the conversation continued like this for at least 30-45 mins.

According to me, its really an healthy discussion as Indians sitting elsewhere in the world. My take on this one, as Seshan brought spotlight to the election commission. Dr. Kalam did bring some spotlight to the President seat. He provoked lots of youngsters and youth with his powerful speeches. Now, at least 60-70% of the youngsters in our country know him and share his dream of our country being Superpower in 2020. I am proud to count myself in that category and like to support the petition. But I would expect more from him in his next period.

Its my Stand. What is your stand ?