The Hindu Business Line : Politics and polemics of Presidential second term

The country observed the 38th death anniversary of its third President, Zakir Husain, on May 3. His death anniversary bears a special significance to the current debate over the presidential election.

The country is to have its 12th president in less than 90 days. Speculation is rife about Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam getting a second term.

Giving a second term to the incumbent President has always divided the polity ever since the issue first came up, in the case of the first President, Rajendra Prasad, in 1957. The state of the polity was vastly different then. It was virtually a one-party rule — of the Congress — at the Centre and practically all the States. Jawaharlal Nehru was the undisputed leader, and despite his known reservations, Rajendra Prasad got a second term; the support was overwhelming from the Congress. Since then none has got a second term.

One-Term Convention

The political class, for its own reasons, has virtually made it a convention not to give the incumbent a second term. For, the stakes in the presidential poll are quite high in the era of coalition politics. After Rajendra Prasad's second term ended in 1962, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had a smooth election thanks to the huge majority of the Congress party. His term ended in 1967, the year the brute majority of the Congress was badly eroded in the Lok Sabha elections.

The 1967 contest was between Zakir Husain, the Congress candidate, and Justice K. Subba Rao, the nominee of the combined Opposition. Zakir Husain, won but died in office, in May 1969. It was also the time of stirring and sensational happenings in the Congress that was going through a crisis following the conflict between the young Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the old guard. Ranged against her were such stalwarts as S. Nijalingappa, S. K. Patil, Morarji Desai and, of course, K. Kamaraj, the man who had made Indira the prime minister.

The old guard, known as the "Syndicate" and headed by Nijalingappa, challenged Indira Gandhi with its own candidate, N. Sanjiva Reddy. A livid Indira Gandhi first signed Reddy's nomination paper only to make a brilliant move.

She endorsed the "rebel" candidature of V. V. Giri. Giri had filed his nomination as an independent, arguing that as he was already Vice-President, the party should not have ignored his claim. It was then that Indira Gandhi gave her famous "conscience vote" call to her party-men, implying that they should vote for Giri, who won with the help of second preference votes.

The rest is history, as at the end of the bitter battle Indira Gandhi emerged the supreme leader.

Fakhuruddin Ali Ahmed succeeded Giri in a smooth election with the Congress enjoying a majority in Parliament and State Assemblies that together make up the Electoral College. Fakhuruddin Ali Ahmed's term became controversial for his signing of the Emergency Proclamation of June 25, 1975. He died in office in February 1977 when Emergency was being relaxed and the Lok Sabha elections for March 1977 were announced by a somewhat mellowed Indira Gandhi. B. D. Jatti, the Vice-President, stepped into Fakhuruddin Ali Ahmed's shoes as acting President till the completion of the elections that saw the Janata Party, a non-Congress combine, come to power in a landslide victory.

Its candidate N. Sanjiva Reddy, the loser of the 1969 contest, easily won and became the country's sixth President.

The Janata experiment did not last, and the Congress swept back to power in 1980. For its Presidential candidate, Zail Singh, the 1982 contest was a walkover with no Opposition candidate and the presence of only frivolous independents. R. Venkataraman in 1987, Shankar Dayal Sharma in 1992 and K. R. Narayanan in 1997 were easy winners as Congress candidates.

But 2002 saw a contest as the Left parties put up Dr Lakshmi Saigal, the INA veteran and close associate of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose against the combined BJP-Congress nominee, Dr Kalam. The election, however, was preceded by a nation-wide debate on giving K. R. Narayanan, the first Dalit President, a second term.

The Congress and the Left did not seem to have major objection to his second term, but the BJP and other parties such as Samajwadi Party, opposed the idea. They had then pointed out the "convention" being followed since 1967 — of not giving the incumbent a second term.

The Speculation

Now, with the next President to take over from July 25, the debate over the presidential second term is back.

The Delhi air is thick with speculation of every kind. But politics of presidential election do not always work on speculation.

Hard political realities, the number game, and considerations of region and religion as well as caste and community play a crucial role.

But why is the speculation so strong about Dr Kalam's second term?

One reason is that he has been by far the most popular President. So much so, he is being branded as "the people's president".

Another factor is that there simply is none from the political class who can fire the imagination of the people, especially the youth, as Dr Kalam has done the last five years. Further, by his veiled comments, Dr Kalam himself has contributed to the speculation.

Two opinion polls have suggested that he should get a second term. According to a survey conducted by a TV network, nearly 60 per cent of all MPs and legislators and 57.9 per cent of more than 300,000 people who voted online and via SMS supported Dr Kalam for another term.

The second preference was the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee (28.7 per cent votes), closely followed by the Vice-President, Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (26.3 per cent).

Some other names — for instance, Congress veterans Karan Singh and Sushil Kumar Shinde — are also doing the rounds.

(The author, a former Deputy Editor with PTI, is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist. Feedback can be sent to rajamanirc@gmail.com or rajamani_rc@yahoo.co.uk)