This week, after the last EVM records the last vote for India’s ultimate mandate, the focus of attention will shift from the people’s court to another constitutional arena—the grand heights of Raisina Hill where India’s First Citizen lives. Well armed with records, opinion and his own experience in around 45 years of public life, President Pranab Mukherjee is preparing to welcome India’s 22nd government. From May 16, the otherwise staid high security zone will be thrown open to myriad media channels and journalists who would zoom in on the scene for their “minute-by-minute feed” on the new government formation as the winning party—or coalition—and top leaders arrive at the President’s doorstep to stake claim to power. The grand shamiana to be erected on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, complete with air-coolers and tea-stalls to accommodate and facilitate the activities of “the chroniclers of the historic moment”, is only a tiny manifestation of the elaborate preparations going on inside the Rashtrapati Bhavan. President Pranab Mukherjee is at the centre of it all.
“It’s preparation time for us here, and we are more or less ready. Once the results are out on May 16, it will be a hectic three-week schedule till the new Lok Sabha meets on (or by) June 1,” said Venu Rajamony, the President’s affable Press Secretary, wiping off the imaginary sweat on his brow in anticipation of the gargantuan task that lies ahead. This is after all that time, which usually comes every five years, when all eyes are focused on the giant pink sandstone edifice that majestically overlooks Rajpath and its incumbent, especially after two decades of coalition governments.
President Mukherjee, who has spent better part of his life in politics has a keen eye for history, of which he himself has been a player in contemporary terms. True to his reputation, he spent the past eight weeks tanking up, studying “every conceivable document’ available to him in the Rashtrapati Bhavan archives and library on the task at hand—the new government formation. He has met over a dozen legal luminaries and Constitutional experts, both from the capital and outside. He has been poring over the decisions taken by earlier presidents. Sanjeeva Reddy’s presidency (1977-1982) had come into special focus, for appointing a PM in a hung Parliament with time stipulations to prove majority had no precedent.
President Ready For Any Eventuality
President Pranab Mukherjee is busy preparing for the all-important role he has to play in government formation once the election results are announced on May 16. Read More