The President is the political head of the country. He is the person who represents the country globally. He is the first citizen of the country. Dressed with all the powers, the seat of the President should be bestowed up on a deserving candidate who is above the caste, creed, gender, language or party discrimination.
The president is the head of the state and is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the country. In 2012, all the eyes are on the 14th indirect Presidential Election of India. For the purpose of 2012 indirect Presidential Election, 106 nominations were presented, out of which the former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee selected two candidates, Pranab Mukherjee from West Bengal and Purno Agitok Sangama who was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from Meghalaya.
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Provisions under the Constitution of India
The Constitution of India bestows many privileges and immunities over the office of the President. The President along with the Counsel of Minister is headed by the Prime Minister according to the provisions of Article 52 to 78 of The Indian Constitution.
Though in theory it might seem that the President is blessed with all the powers on the earth, but in real he is the Constitutional monarch of the Country who is responsible to check the arbitrary actions of the Government, whether central or state. The office of the President is created by Article 52 of the Constitution. The President is not elected directly by the people but by indirect election.
Procedure for Electing the President
Article 56 provides that the President is eligible to hold the office for a period of five year and he will be elected by the method of indirect election by the system of proportionate representation by means of single transferable vote. The entire process for selecting the President is provided under Article 54 of the Indian Constitution.
Powers of the President
The President of India is conferred with wide range of powers which includes executive powers, legislative powers, judicial powers, diplomatic powers, military powers, emergency powers, and financial powers. Therefore, a person with adequate knowledge and integrity shall be appointed to hold the office of President.
As the number of nomination crossed 100, the responsibility was on the government to elect the right person, with all the qualities needed to hold the office of the President of India.
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee
Pranab Mukherjee is an Indian politician. He has successfully served as foreign, defence, commerce and finance minister during the decade of his political career. Being born as a son of the freedom fighter, Shri Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee, he was privileged to spend his childhood and youth watching his father’s role in the Indian Independence movement. His father was a member of the Indian National Congress and following their path; Mukherjee also joined the Indian National Congress and was also the part of the Congress Working Committee for a period of 23 years.
Pranab Mukherjee started his career as a social science teacher at Vidyanagar College in 1963 and has also served as journalist in the Desher Dak. But above all, he has the blood of a freedom fighter in his veins, which made his way towards the Indian National Congress in 1969, when he became the member of the Rajya Sabha.
Indira Gandhi recognized the ability and competency of Pranab Mukherjee and helped him to start his career as a politician. He jumped steeply and became the Deputy Minister of the INC in the Rajya Sabha in 1979 and was appointed as a leader in the House in 1980. He held the office of the Finance Minister for a period of two years between 1982 and 1984. In 1991, he was appointed as deputy chairman of the Planning Commission by P. V. Narasimha Rao.
He added one more feather to his wings when he became the Minister of External Affairs from 1995 to 1996. He became portfolio Minister of Defence from 2004 to 2006 and once again severed as the Minister of External Affairs from 2006 to 2009. With his potential and abilities he became the Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012.
Along with all these achievements he was also the Leader of the Lower House of the Parliament from 2004 to 2012. He even has an amazing diplomatic experience having served on the Board of Governors of the IMF, World Bank, ADB etc. He is also considered as an Economic Reformer. While serving as the Minister of Finance for the first time, he made many economic policies which proved out to be fruitful for the Indian economy.
He was also successful in settling the economic uncertainties to a great extent. He was successful in controlling the GDP growth rate. Pranab Mukherjee also over saw the successful sighing of the nuclear agreement between United Nations of America and India which allowed India to participate in civilian nuclear trade in spite of not having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
He has also honoured with many awards like in 2008, he was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan which is the second highest civilian award of the country. Not even in India, he was honoured in Bangladesh with the Bangladesh’s second highest award i.e. the Bangladesh Liberation War Honor in 2013.
Amongst his many achievements, the greatest was the one when he was named Finance Minister of the Year for Asia by Emerging Market, the daily newspaper of record for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Pranab Mukherjee has solved the internal as well as the external problems of India with firm understanding.
He was not only a politician or a minister, but he penned his thoughts in various books. He wrote Midterm Poll in the year 1969, Beyond survival- Emerging Dimensions of Indian Economy in the year 1984, Of the Track in the year 1987 and Challenges before the Nation in the year 1992.
Purno Agitok Sangama
The co-founder of the Nationalist Congress Party and the ex-chief Minister of Meghalaya before stepping into politics had played many roles in the society. He stated his career as a lecturer, lawyer and a journalist. Sangama started his political career from 1973 onward when he became the vice-president of Pradesh Youth Congress in Meghalaya.
In the following year he became the General Secretary and held the office for a period of five year starting from 1975 to 1980. He was elected to the 6th Lok Sabha from Tura Constituency was stayed as a member till the 14th Lok Sabha. Between 1980 and 1988, he even worked for the Union Government of India under various posts.
He was elected as a member of Lok Sabha In the year1991 and in the in 1996 he became the speaker of the Lok Sabha. In 2004 he divided the Nationalist Congress Party of which he was the Co-Founder after he lost the battle over the party election symbol. At this point, he merged with Trinamool Congress and formed the Nationalist Trinamool Congress. In 2005, he resigned from the Lok Sabha seat allotted to him and took part in Meghalaya Legislative Assembly elections.
He has served many positions in politics. He was on the post of the Union Industry Ministry. He worked hard and improved the production capacity of the Cement Industries of the country to the point of self sufficiency. He even sat in the office of the Coal Minister, where he turned the coal production into profit generating enterprise.
He also served as the Commerce Minister and was successful in introducing plantation crops for export in North-east part of India. As a Labor Minister he brought relief to the workers of factory by introducing many pension and wages schemes for worker in unorganised and organised sectors.
He worked and liberalised the usage of airwaves and investment in the electronic media when he became the Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Being the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, he created a group to report on Ethics and Standards in Public life and also guided the Parliamentary Committees efficiently.
Deserving Candidate
Pranab Mukherjee’s contribution is notable and he did a lot to the country without any personal ambitions. On contrary to this Mr. Sangama depicted himself as a tribal leader and wants favour from the government by asking votes on this ground. A President should be above all the discrimination and special favour.
There is no doubt that Mr. Pranab Mukherjee is the most eligible candidate to hold the office of the President of India. Pranab Mukherjee is the oldest member of the Parliament and he holds a strong position in hearts of many. He is holding the position with his potential and hard work.
Not only is this, the congress also is supporting Mr. Pranab Mukherjee over Mr. P. A. Sangama because Mr. Mukherjee is more experienced and loyal. Therefore, we can say that Mr. Pranab Mukherjee deserves to take the seat of the President of India as he filled with all the qualities which the President of India should possess.