Thursday, June 21, 2007

Second term for Kalam?

President Kalam is not making fresh admirers with his latest stance on his being a candidate for a second term. Here is what a Left leader is quoted as saying in Rediff:

A senior leader of the party questioned Kalam's morality and said that the President had changed his stand. "Earlier, he said that there should be consensus and now he is saying certainty. There is a wide difference between the two terms," the leader who did not wish to be identified said.

Railway minister Lalu Yadav has suggested that President Kalam step down "gracefully". I am more afraid we can expect more unkind utterances if Kalam chooses to prolong the uncertainty over his candidature.

There is an element of hypocrisy in the BJP's suggesting that it was willing to settle for Kalam for a second term. In the case of former president K R Narayanan, the party had taken the stand that it would abide by the convention of one term for the president.

Kalam would have risen in stature had he declared his own adherence to a salutary principle which has been observed for several decades now.

1 comment:

Krishnan said...

I was going to dismiss story as "Whatever" "the usual politics" and all that ... when I noted this in that article

"A noted parliamentarian, the leader in question said Kalam is not even a scientist. "He is at best an engineer," he said"

I had not seen this kind of view "at best an engineer" (so, am I to take that "scientists" (whatever that term means) are of "higher" standing? (!)