Click to play videoNew Delhi: For the presidential front-runner Pratibha Patil, the ghosts of the past simply refuse to go away.
Having been embroiled in a spate of controversies including loan defaulting and financial irregularities, Patil isn’t over her share of bad PR yet.
This time on, it’s her brother Dilipsingh Patil who is under scrutiny for his role in the collapse of the all-women’s bank set up by his sister in 1973.
Investigations by CNN-IBN in Patil's hometown Jalgaon reveal that her elder brother has much to answer for in the collapse of the bank. Earlier her relatives were accused of defaulting on a Rs 17.5-crore loan for a sugar co-operative that also collapsed.
In addition, observers opine Patil seems to be suffering from foot-in-mouth disease. First she invited ire by commenting that Indian women started wearing veils to protect themselves from Mughals, and later she claimed to have spoken with a dead ‘godman’.
So, does India want to see a supposedly superstitious, little known, district-level politician becoming the first citizen of this country? Should Pratibha Patil come clean on the allegations against her?
To debate the issue on CNN-IBN show Face the Nation were Dr Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research, Devendra Dwivedi Senior Leader, Congress, Chandan Mitra Rajya Sabha MP/ Editor In Chief The Pioneer.
Should Pratibha Patil respond to the charges against her?
The question most people are asking is whether the Congress is guilty of violating due diligence. The party did not check Patil’s background, the previous charges against her and the cases pending against her family members, which show her direct or indirect involvement.
Defending Patil, Congress leader Devendra Dwivedi said, “Her political career is an open chapter. She was a member of the legislative assembly for 20-years, has been twice a minister, once a LS and RS member. Also she has been the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha and at present she holds the same post at the state-level, which a President holds at a nation’s level,” said Congress leader Devendra Dwivedi.
“During all this period not one single allegation came up against her. She is eminently qualified to become the President,” he added.
Every second day, newer charges are coming up surfacing against Pratibha Patil. There are some serious allegations of a bank default against her. A woman called Rajni Patil claims that Pratibha’s brother had a hand in her husband’s murder. Rajni, a Marathi professor in Jalgaon, accused Pratibha of shielding her brother.
Is the Congress even going to attempt a clarification, or is it simply going to brush it aside as just another opposition gimmick?
Chadan Mitra said, “The financial scam and fraud cases against Patil are indeed serious,”
Here we have a woman who has not been in the limelight for the past 20-years. In other words since 1987, she has been out of the public limelight and therefore the frauds and corruption by her did not surface. Now it transpires what has been going on in her home, the bank she set up and the way she turned a blind eye to all the frauds and scams done by her family.”
Defending Patil, Dr Ranjana Kumari Director, Centre For Social Research said, “She is being made answerable to her brother, husband and family members. People who are levying such charges must not forget that they are no clean. There are bigger charges against many active politicians who continue to hold key posts while cases against them keep surfacing in the media and the press.”
Are her views controversial?
Pratibha Patil first created controversy when on June 17 she told a function in Udaipur that purdah was introduced in India to “save women from Mughal invaders”.
On the day her name was announced as UPA’s presidential candidate, Patil at an ashram in Mount Abu said she communicated with the spirit of the godman of the ashram, who died 38 years ago.
Dwivedi responding to the controversy that Patil talks to a dead godman, said, “These issues are totally out of context. It was her personal view on spirituality.”
But do we expect the first citizen of India, the commander-in-chief of India’s Armed Forces to be driven by superstitions?
Of course there have been politicians who were famous for their religious and spiritual beliefs like Indira Gandhi and her faith in Dhirendra Brahmachari’s yoga. But then they were not the frontrunners for a post as high as that of a President.
“Indira Gandhi was not a Presidential candidate. Pratibha Patil is being nominated to hold the highest office of the land. Even if her views on godmen and spirits were private, she should have kept them to herself given the fact that she is expected to be the President,” said Chandan Mitra.
“She continues to be what she always was, a small time district level Congress politician,” he added.
Is it a mofussilisation of national politics?
Pratibha Patil is a little-known politician who has worked mostly at the district level. Charges are being brought out against her while she has not yet shown that she is of some extraordinary stature.
However, other than Radhakrishnan or Zakir Hussain, almost all the former Presidents of India were only professional politicians who just grew in their shoes while being on the job. Responding to the statement Chandan Mitra said, “I think every president has been a person of stature in his field in their way. But here is a case where you have actually a district level person, coming out to occupy the post of a President.”
“BJP had wanted Kalam to be in the consensus. But no body responded and thereafter BJP chose its own candidate,” he added.
However, speaking in Patil’s defence, Congress leader Dwivedi said, “Let us not denigrate the person who within 40 days will be the President of the country.”
“I’m afraid that these 45 days is the last chance that the nation will have to get to know the truth. There are serious investigations going on against her. She has been named as a respondent in a murder case. Tomorrow if and when she becomes a President I hope we don’t have that unseemly spectacle of the CBI entering Rashtrapati Bhavan to enquire the President of this country,” concluded Mitra.
Final Results: Should Pratibha Patil respond to the charges against her?
Yes: 95 per cent
No: 5 per cent
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