A few days ago, one was shocked to read a Press Trust of India(PTI) report in the press about the Indian lady President, Mrs Pratibha Patil's fondness for foreign trips alongwith a huge group of her family and officials, at the cost of public exchequer. In response to a Right to Information(RTI) enquiry, it was revealed that Mrs Patil has set up a record of "jet-setting", making 12 trips to 22 countries in 4 continents, at the massive cost of Rs.205 crores! Her five-year tenure is about to end in July, 2012, but clearly her "wanderlust" at the expense of public funds, is yet not fully satisfied; it is reported that the lady President is getting ready to make her last official journey to South Africa before she demits her office within four months!
Right-thinking and concerned Indians were distressed when this undistinguished, provinicial politician was suddenly chosen by her party leadership to occupy the august office of the Head of the State-that too as the first woman President in the history of independent India. One hoped that, perhaps, the highest office might bring the best in the humble lady and she would leave behind a great legacy which the Indian people would remember fondly. But, alas, this was not to be. On the top of it, we have her penchant for expensive "wanderlust". The people at large cannot forget how the lady President has been a convenient tool of her party and government leadership to excessively delay the Supreme Court ordered execution of the Parliament attack convict(Afzal Guru) till this day. She has served as "your most obedient master" in her tenure!
It is a sad reflection on our democracy that there is hardly any accountability of the office-holder of the top-most office. At least, in the case of another constitutional office-holder-Mayawati, she had to pay a large price of losing her chief ministership for a colossal misuse of her office and public money. In contrast, Mrs Patil will go home quietly.
Right-thinking and concerned Indians were distressed when this undistinguished, provinicial politician was suddenly chosen by her party leadership to occupy the august office of the Head of the State-that too as the first woman President in the history of independent India. One hoped that, perhaps, the highest office might bring the best in the humble lady and she would leave behind a great legacy which the Indian people would remember fondly. But, alas, this was not to be. On the top of it, we have her penchant for expensive "wanderlust". The people at large cannot forget how the lady President has been a convenient tool of her party and government leadership to excessively delay the Supreme Court ordered execution of the Parliament attack convict(Afzal Guru) till this day. She has served as "your most obedient master" in her tenure!
It is a sad reflection on our democracy that there is hardly any accountability of the office-holder of the top-most office. At least, in the case of another constitutional office-holder-Mayawati, she had to pay a large price of losing her chief ministership for a colossal misuse of her office and public money. In contrast, Mrs Patil will go home quietly.
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