The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Unpleasant

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 25, 2007
ePaper

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Unpleasant

The exercise of choosing a presidential candidate has been full of twists and turns, like Team India’s performance in the World Cup. To begin with, the UPA and the Left could not agree on a candidate and finally settled for a compromise candidate. The NDA projected Mr. Shekhawat as an independent candidate because Mr. Kalam declared that he was not in the race for a second term. The so-called Third Front of unsuccessful Chief Ministers came together and dragged the first citizen into an unwanted controversy. As a result, everyone, including the President and the Vice-President, was forced to cut a sorry figure.

* * *

All this clearly shows that no party or leader is capable of arriving at a consensus on any issue. All they do is create hurdles for others and provide masala for the media.

G. Guruprasad,
Secunderabad

* * *

Ms. Patil was not the UPA’s first choice. As it could not identify a candidate acceptable to the Left, it settled for a low-profile candidate and made a virtue out of necessity by harping on the gender factor. For its part, the NDA decided to back Mr. Shekhawat knowing full well that it did not have the numbers. Not to be left behind, the UNPA committed the blunder of announcing Mr. Kalam’s candidature. Mr. Kalam has done the wise thing by declining to contest.

V. Pandy,
Tuticorin

* * *

That the presidential election has assumed the colour of a general election, with politicians exchanging unpleasant words, is unfortunate. This tendency should be arrested if the highest office of the world’s largest democracy is to be saved from dishonour.

T. Ramachandra Prasad,
Chennai

* * *

Though all the three political groups are to blame for making the presidential election so unpleasant, the worst offender is the Third Front.

T.M. Premachandran,
Madurai

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion