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A. P. J. Abdul Kalam has been elected President of India. By the time this issue of The Dayafter hits the stands, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, former BJP Chief Minister of Rajasthan, will most likely be heading towards the Vice-Presidency.

A national English daily has hailed the election of Abdul Kalam as testimony to the greatness of India’s democracy in that the son of a boatman can become the President of the country. There is no denying this. Something like this can happen only in a democratic country like India. One simply cannot imagine it happening in Pakistan, for instance.

Having said that, one needs to consider whether it was really a victory for democracy or for political expediency. It should be recalled that Abdul Kalam was nowhere in any political party’s initial list for the Presidential post. The BJP had initially plumped for P. C. Alexander, the Governor of Maharashtra at that time. But the Congress and other opposition parties vigorously objected for various reasons. The Congress, the leading opposition party, was reportedly against Alexander because he was a Christian and his election would jeopardise the next Prime Minister also being a Christian. The Congress seemed to believe that it had a very good chance to dethrone the BJP in the next general elections and emerge as the largest party, may be even with a working majority. In such a case, it would not be able to project Sonia Gandhi as its leader and Prime Ministerial candidate.

The Congress Party’s optimism regarding its chances in the next general elections was validly based on the fact that, except for Goa, it had beaten the BJP hollow in all other State elections held till date. Its decision, however, put the BJP in a fix. It had to react—and quickly. It had to come up with an offer (read candidate) the Congress could not refuse. And it made a brilliant choice. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam is a renowned scientist who has been called, rightly or wrongly, the father of India’s missile programme. His was a name of consequence in the scientific community in India and abroad. He was the recipient of many awards and had been lauded for his efforts in India’s defence by all political parties, including the Congress. Making a virtue of necessity, the Congress had no option but to announce its support to Kalam, in the process annoying its sympathisers in the Left.

Was this democracy at work? Hardly. In this country of one billion, there are probably millions who can qualify for the President’s post. But can they get there? Not without political support. And if political support is based not on the merit of the candidate but the political needs of the ruling party, it can hardly be called a triumph for democracy.

Be that as it may be, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam is now the President of India. May be the BJP is hoping that it can still show a profit by exploiting Kalam’s ignorance of politics and tactfully guiding him into words and actions that are to its advantage. Pramod Mahajan’s recent boorish and arrogant comment terming the election of Kalam and of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (who is expected to become the Vice President) as satellites is a pointer in this direction. This is on par with Bal Thackeray’s open claim that he held the remote which activated the erstwhile Shiv Sena chief minister of Maharashtra.

The question now is, will Kalam allow himself to be dominated by the BJP or will he stand out as an independent and ‘thinking’ President. While there is no denying that he knows little of current day politics or probably even his constitutional duties, it also cannot be denied that he is a very intelligent man who, as a scientist for all his adult lifetime, has certainly the ability to think logically. It can be presumed that he will put to the test of logic and morality any action that is recommended to him by the Government.

The Constitution gives little leeway to the President to show any initiative unless, of course, an Emergency is declared as happened in 1977. In almost all matters he is guided by Parliament and even if he disagrees with a bill passed by Parliament, he can be forced to sign it into law.

India has had a number of Presidents who have maintained their dignity and honour even while having to give in to measures with which they were not comfortable. K. R. Narayanan was the latest of this tribe. There have also been a number of Presidents who accepted that they were only figureheads and acted accordingly. The Congress was fortunate that it had more than its share of amenable Presidents. There was Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who probably holds the record for having signed more ordinances into law than any other President before or after him; there was V. V. Giri who was, along with the First Lady, ever lauding the qualities of ‘Amma’ (Indira Gandhi); and, of course, Gyani Zail Singh, who went on record that he would sweep the floors if his leader (again Indira Gandhi) demanded it.

Unfortunately, the BJP came to power with K. R. Narayanan as the President. Narayanan is nobody’s fool. He might have been forced into signing documents which went against his grain, but he made his displeasure known very forcefully. May be the BJP feels that it is time it had some of the Congress Party’s luck and sees Abdul Kalam in this light. Pramod Mahajan’s uncouth statement certainly supports this view.

Kalam knows he is under the microscope, not only of the Opposition parties, but also of the people of India. He has an unenviable job. He has to do the correct thing, according to the Constitution and, at the same time, be seen to be doing so. Being a Muslim, he will be particularly under scrutiny both by the minority community, which probably has great expectations of him, and the lunatic fringe of the BJP to whom all Muslims are anathema.

So far, the BJP has managed to hold these fringe parties under the leash. But the equation has changed with Advani elevated as the Deputy Prime Minister. And, as the permission to Narendra Modi to prepone the State elections shows, he’s certainly no figurehead. He knows his ideology, he knows his mind and he certainly knows how to get what he wants. At the same time, he is seen to be a person who will not rock the BJP boat and, basically, as far as he can, he seeks out honourable avenues for action. But the fringe parties see him as a sympathiser (wrongly) and may make things difficult for him (the demand to trifurcate J & K, for instance). These are matters which can easily come up in Parliament and, once that happens, the President is inevitably involved. Which way will Kalam go?

Nobody knows since so little is known about his political predilections and how seriously he views them. But hopes are high among the people that he will give priority to the national interest (which means guarding the sacred provisions of the Indian Constitution) rather than the interests of any political party, no matter which one. After Kalam’s election, the almost sure election of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as Vice President will be virtually an anti-climax. If the President is considered a figurehead, the Vice-President is even more so. His main job is to preside over the Rajya Sabha. Shekhawat, except within political circles, is barely known outside Rajasthan, though he has very good political credentials. As Chief Minister of Rajasthan for 10 years, he managed to take the bureaucracy and the opposition along with him and much of the progress that Rajasthan has seen was initiated during his regime. After the BJP lost out to the Congress in the last Assembly elections, Shekhawat appeared to be sidelined by his party. They had no use for his very lengthy political experience and manipulating expertise. But he bided his time, content with making life difficult for the incumbent Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, as any good opposition leader should.