During her college days, she excelled in table tennis, winning various inter-college tournaments. In 1962, Pratibha Patil was voted "College Queen" of M.J. College.
There, the mere fact that we are getting a "college queen", no less, as a President should be enough to convince the nay-sayers about her candidature. Afterall she has experience in being a figure head! Plus, a crowned royal personage who excels at commoners' sports like table tennis, sigh, we SOO needed a President with those qualifications.
AND one who gets divine visions in the form of dead people talking to her:
Patil claims to have spoken to the spirit of the deceased leader (Baba Lekhraj) of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University at their headquarters in Mount Abu, Rajasthan.
"Dadiji ke shareer mein Baba aye ... Maine unse baat ki (Baba entered Devi’s body and he communicated to me through her)," she said on TV camera.[62] Reporters began to report on the message she received of a “divine indication“ of great responsibility coming her way.
Patil claims to have received the mediumistic message during the last season in which the spirits they call "Bapdada" communicated with the faithful of the Brahma Kumaris sect. She had gone to seek the blessings of Hirday Mohini, also known as Dadi Gulzar or Dadiji
Now THAT's what the Doctor ordered for leading India towards becoming a global economic and social super power in the 21st century - a clairvoyant President!!
My flatmate R and I have been trying and trying ever since her name started bouncing around in the Presidential elections arena to hear her speak anything at all in the media. In this day and age of media juggernauts it would obviously take a very athletic person with an inborn "college queen-ly" haughty veneer to avoid and discourage the baying journos. Ms. Patil has successfully managed to resist all attempts by media persons to get the much sought after sound byte, and must be congratulated for managing this.
However, this has also confused us, the public of the country, about what kind of spineless person we may be getting as our leader. I mean, if she can't come out and defend herself against all the charges flying around at her, and has to resort to Ms. Gandhi and the Prime Minister giving her clean chits in all cases, then the possibility of her being a neutral, mutually respected leader for both the government and the opposition, much less the international community seems to be really bleak.
Jokes and sarcasm apart, she HAS done some things which are worth emulating. She didn't take her husband's surname at the time when it was automatically assumed that she would. She's a trained lawyer. She got into politics at an early age. She's also the first woman Governor of Rajasthan. My rant has nothing to do with her past achievements. She is a distinguished lady who may, for all I know, make a great President. Its her behaviour during the pre-election days thats getting my goat.
Somehow, her reluctance to face the media and talk about the numerous allegations floating around (that could be a smear campaign, I really don't have enough material to judge) has sort of taken the halo away from the President's office. And she seems more like a force-fit rather than the genuine thing.
Related to this, newspaper stories claim that when her huband 'educator' Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat got the news of her success in the Presidential race, he joked - "Hehe..guffaw.. now she will be the head of the family...hehe...it'll become a matriachal family..guffaws "
WTF, so? Ever heard of equality of sexes? And why the hell are you laughing like a moron for? What the hell is so wrong with a matriachal family? She's the President of the largest true democracy in the world, what do you expect her to do...cook you food and tie your shoelaces because you're a man? Jeez...
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