Pitfalls in the race for President

Vir Sanghvi is right when he says that petty political considerations drove the UPA to choose its presidential candidate (The Pettiness of the Race, June 17).

Vir Sanghvi is right when he says that petty political considerations drove the UPA to choose its presidential candidate (The Pettiness of the Race, Counterpoint, June 17). In fact, he had earlier said, “the world’s largest democracy will end up with some politically correct monument to caste and communal tokenism at Rashtrapati Bhawan. And that we will once again not have a President we can be proud of”. Pratibha Patil’s name was cleared only after failing to reach a consensus with the Left allies on other male nominees. It is nonsense that she was chosen because she is a woman.

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Tarlok Singh, New Delhi

II

Why do we need a woman president, and that too someone with a political background? It is best if the president is not a political person like APJ Abdul Kalam. It would have been appropriate if he had been re-elected, though it is now clear that he does not wish to contest. One reason may be that during his tenure, he had returned the Bill of Office of Profit with valid questions but his suggestions were ignored. And the president has no power to refuse to sign a Bill the second time his signature is sought

M Kumar, New Delhi

III

Pratibha Patil’s candidature is based on cold political calculations and a strategy for survival. It has nothing to do with women’s empowerment.

Ved Guliani, Hisar

IV

The Presidential nomination shows how obsessed we are with a candidate’s gender, caste etc rather than his/her inner qualities.

Pranav K Pankaj, via email.

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