:: Issue Analyses

From Finance Minister to President

Santosh Kumar Manager, POSCO-

he United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate has been elected the 13th in the election held on July 19, 2012. He defeated the National T Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate P.A. Sangma. Mukherjee polled a vote value of 7,140,000 or about 69% of the total valid votes. Mukherjee was sworn in as the President of India by the Chief Justice of India on July 25, 2012 when his predecessor Pratibha quit as the President. In the Indian political system, the President enjoys very limited power because the real executive power rests with the Council of Ministers led by the Prime Minister. The election of Mukherjee as President is a significant development because it marks the return of a seasoned and active politician to the presidential office after a gap of 10 years. Two of Mukherjee’s predecessors, Pratibha Patil and Abdul Kalam, were neither an active politician nor a politician at all. Mukherjee was the Finance

105 Autumn 2012�POSRI Chindia Quarterly Mukherjee’s Biography

* Born in year 1935 in West Bengal * Married in 1957 to Suvra Mukherjee * Member in 1969 * Finance Minister (1982-84) * Rajya Sabha Leader (1980-85) * Planning Commission Dy. Chairman in 1989 * Foreign Minister (1995-96) * Leader of (2004-12) * Defence Minister (2004-06) * Foreign Minister (2006-09) * Finance Minister (2009-12) * Elected President of India (July 2012)

Minister in the UPA-II government led by Prime Minister . He is loyal to the family and also a troubleshooter for the ruling (INC) in difficult situations.

○● Easy victory for Mukherjee There were lots of political manipulations in the President’s election. TMC leader Mamta Bannerjee had initially opposed Mukherjee’s candidature. However, she gave in later on. Mukherjee’s victory in the President election was easy because he was supported by the ruling INC and its coalition partners, including NCP, TMC, DMK. He was also supported by other friendly parties like SP, BSP, RJD, etc. Besides, he was also able to win support of the parties like JD(U) and Shiva Sena from the NDA. Meanwhile, there was also political realignment in the NDA. The NDA could not stop its allies like JD(U) and Shiva Sena from voting to Mukherjee but it got new allies like BJD from Odisha and AIADMK from Tamil Nadu. It is hoped that

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Former Presidents of India (1950-2012)

Names Tenure Highlights

Rajendra Prasad 1950-1962 Difference with Nehru

S Radhakrishnan 1962-1967 Pushed the education sector

Zakir Hussain 1967-1969 Education for muslims

VV Giri 1969-1974 ’s loyalist

FA Ahmed 1974-1977 Emergency proclamation

Neelam S. Reddy 1977-1982 Belonged to Janta Party

Zail Singh 1982-1987 Controversy with Rajiv Gandhi

R Venkataraman 1987-1992 Appointed Narsimha Rao as PM

SD Sharma 1992-1997 Appointed Vajpayee as PM

KR Narayanan 1997-2002 First dalit President

APJ Abdul Kalam 2002-2007 Missile man

Pratibha Patil 2007-2012 First woman President

in future both BJD and AIADMK can join NDA.

○● Election to the presidential office For eligibility of election to the President, a person should be an Indian citizen and should be 35 years of age. He should also be qualified for election to the Lok Sabha. He should not hold any office of profit under any government and should not be a member of the Parliament and State Legislature. In India, the President is not directly elected by the people but indirectly elected. He is elected by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of the both houses of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha) and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies (Vidhan

107 Autumn 2012�POSRI Chindia Quarterly Sabhas) in the States and Provinces. He is The first challenge before elected for a period of five years. His term newly elected President can end if he resigns or is impeached for Mukherjee is to restore the violation of the Constitution or his term people’s confidence in the office of the President. expires. In India, there is no limit on how many times a person can be re-elected to the post of President.

○● Powers of Indian President Unlike the Presidents of other countries, the Indian President does not enjoy much power because he is not directly elected by the people. He is a merely constitutional head of the country. Even though the executive power of the central government vests in him, he acts only on the advice of the Council of Ministers led by Prime Minister. However, his role is crucial at a time when he has to discharge his discretion as to which political party should be invited to form government when no party has got majority. Besides, the President has power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites of punishments granted by the court. He also visits foreign countries to improve the relations. He has also got certain powers in relation to tribal area administration.

○● Challenges before New President The tenure of his predecessor Pratibha Patil as the President is not so significant. Rather, it is marred by corruption controversies embroiling her. It eroded people’s confidence in the office of the President. Therefore, the first challenge before newly elected President Mukherjee is to restore the people’s confidence in the office of the President. It will be a hard task for him because he carries the burden of mismanaging the economy of India as Finance Minister. He has been severely blamed by the critics for not controlling inflation, downfall of the rupee, etc. Experts find that his

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promotion from the Finance Minister to President is more a result of easy political calculation rather than a result of his performance as the Finance Minister. Critics think that he is an ‘imposed’ President.

○● Congress loyalty vs. constitutional obligation Social networking sites like Facebook are full of doubtful comments about Mukherjee’s tenure as the President. People think that a person, who has been loyal to the Sonia Gandhi family and who has been elected to the office of the President only at Sonia Gandhi’s grace, cannot be a fair custodian of the Constitution. The critics think that even as the President he will not be able to abdicate his loyalty to the Sonia Gandhi family and Congress. It is a tough personal task for him.

○● His role in 2014 and beyond The Parliament election will be held in 2014 and as the experts predict that the 2014 elections will be the most keenly contested election between BJP’s Gujarat Chief Minister and Congress . Mukherjee, who owes so much to the Sonia Gandhi family, would certainly wish Rahul Gandhi to become the Prime Minister. If Rahul Gandhi becomes the Prime Minister, it would be easy for him to work. However, if Narendra Modi, who is known for fast and ruthless decision-making, becomes the Prime Minister, the job of Mukherjee will be very hard. It will not be easy for him to deal with Narendra Modi. The experts find that if Narendra Modi becomes PM, there will be many situations in which Modi will be in overriding conflict with Mukherjee. However, Modi’s projection as Prime Minister candidate depends a lot on his performance in the Gujarat Assembly election scheduled in November, 2012.

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