First woman prez to be sworn in
India's first woman president, Pratibha Patil, is due to be sworn in on Wednesday as head of state of the world's largest democracy in a pomp-laden ceremony.
By Agencies |
NEW DELHI: India's first woman president, Pratibha Patil, is due to be sworn in on Wednesday as head of state of the world's largest democracy in a pomp-laden ceremony.
The 72-year-old lawyer is slated to assume the largely ceremonial role from outgoing president Abdul Kalam at the elaborate handover later in the day in the capital involving a procession of lance-bearing horsemen.
Under constitution, the prime minister wields executive power but the president plays a role in forming governments at state and Central levels, making the post hotly contested in fractured political landscape.
Kalam, a missile scientist who was dubbed the "People's President" for his populist style, has said he will leave the presidential palace with just "two small suitcases" and return to teaching at a university.
Patil, who cuts a conservative figure with her sari pulled over her hair, was plucked from relative political obscurity by Sonia Gandhi, the powerful president of the ruling Congress party.
She was elected by center and state legislators after a bruising campaign against her by the opposition who accused her of protecting her brother in a murder probe and shielding her husband in a suicide scandal as well as involvement in a slew of financial scams.
The 72-year-old lawyer is slated to assume the largely ceremonial role from outgoing president Abdul Kalam at the elaborate handover later in the day in the capital involving a procession of lance-bearing horsemen.
Under constitution, the prime minister wields executive power but the president plays a role in forming governments at state and Central levels, making the post hotly contested in fractured political landscape.
Kalam, a missile scientist who was dubbed the "People's President" for his populist style, has said he will leave the presidential palace with just "two small suitcases" and return to teaching at a university.
Patil, who cuts a conservative figure with her sari pulled over her hair, was plucked from relative political obscurity by Sonia Gandhi, the powerful president of the ruling Congress party.
She was elected by center and state legislators after a bruising campaign against her by the opposition who accused her of protecting her brother in a murder probe and shielding her husband in a suicide scandal as well as involvement in a slew of financial scams.
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Patil, who was governor of Rajasthan, denied all wrongdoing, saying the allegations were politically motivated.
Gandhi said Patil's election would be a historic moment and boost the cause of women in a country where many face massive sexual discrimination.
But analysts said Patil, a staunch Congress party loyalist, would have to make sure she was not regarded as a pawn of the ruling coalition.
Patil would be forced to take "tough calls" during her five-year stint as president of India and its billion-plus population, said Rajiv Bhargav, constitutional expert at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
"It is not going to be a nine-to-five job for madam president," he warned. Pran Chopra, a prominent political commentator, said he believed Patil would be a rubber stamp of the Congress-led government which installed her.
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"Her job will be to execute decisions of the government- whether they are about commuting death sentences or pushing a dormant draft law that vows to reserve seats for women in the parliament," Chopra said.
"But all said and done, it's not going to be a cakewalk for her," added the analyst from the Centre for Policy Research think-tank.
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