Thursday, May 17, 2007

Next President?

The other day I received this forwarded mail asking me to support the cause "Bring back Kalam" campaign. At the first instance, I thought why not? President Kalam has been a great inspiration to the people of India, specially the youth. He's instilled the confidence that any person can dream of getting to the top-most seat of power in India, by sheer virtue of being a successful person.
In the past, I was of the impression that only people with political experiences went on to become Presidents, which was wrong. But we've always had the impression that Presidents were made to be the puppets in ruling governments' hands. And that's why governments are so very serious about having the President of their choice - so their bills could be passed with no hassles. We've hardly seen any confrontations between the Govt and the President's office. The Office of profit Bill was one rare example where the President and the Govt were on a collision course.
I'm no political commentator, by any stretch, to write about political wisdom here.
All I want to say is - if the role of the President doesn't require one to be politically experienced, why not carry on with the Kalam experiment. Bring in somebody who can inspire the whole country. At this juncture while we Indians are ready to take on the world with new invigorated confidence, we need somebody on the same lines. Somebody like a Narayan Murthy who embodies the sheer brilliance of entrepreneurial brilliance and social righteousness. Considering that India is a land where more than 80% of the population is self-employed or works in the unorganised sector, a person like him would inspire people to try hard and believe in themselves to make it big. Not just that, a person who is as successful as he has been in the contemporary business world could more than make up for his inexperience in politics.
Not that I don't want Prof Kalam to continue. I've personally admired his immense contribution to the Indian defense and his efforts to motivate the youth through his speeches and writings. But I think he should make way for a similar role model because that would mean another person with a great charisma and lot of different ideas.