President of India

Election for the President of India is due within a few months. There is a possibility that UPA government may fall and Lok Sabha be dissolved. The election will be valid even if Lok Sabha and all Legislative Assemblies are dissolved and only elected members of Rajya Sabha vote in the election. Nominated members of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies do not have the right to vote in presidential election.

Modesty forbids me from mentioning the best person who should become the President. I will mention some good and better persons.

IAC has members like Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal and Shanti Bhushan who can be candidates. If Shazia Ilmi, Gaurav Bakshi and Abhinandan Sekhri are 35 they can be candidates.

Dinesh Trivedi puts country first, family second and the rest, next. He can be a candidate.

Arnab Goswami will make the contest for presidency interesting.

Among sportspersons there are Ajit Pal Singh, Ashok Kumar, Ashish Ballal, Merwyn Fernandes, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Michael Ferreira, Ramanathan Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj and Vishwanathan Anand.

Married women who, other things being equal, have retained their maiden surnames after marriage make good candidates for president.

The list of who should not become President includes Hamid Ansari, Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram and Sheila Dikshit.

The constitution prescribes that to be President the person has to be a citizen of India, completed the age of 35 years, qualified for election as member of Lok Sabha and should not hold any office of profit. I prescribe additional qualifications which also should apply to MPs, MLAs, MLCs, members of district councils, urban, rural and other local bodies.

1) Should not be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

2) Should not have committed adultery.

3) Should not have had sex with man, woman or beast against the order of nature.

4) Should not have committed abduction, character assassination, hijacking, kidnapping, murder, piracy, rape or such high crime.

5) Should not be a person who opposes death penalty for murder, attempted murder abduction, character assassination, hijacking, kidnapping, piracy and such high crimes.

6) Should not be an alcoholic, drunkard, gambler, smoker or drug addict.

7) Should not have had sex with a prostitute, call girl or gigolo.

8) Should not have had pre-marital sex. (Marital sex does not become pre-marital sex if a married person becomes single and marries again.)

9) Should not have had extra-marital sex.

10) Should not have had more than one spouse at a time.

11) Should not have married a married person knowingly.

12) Should not have lied under oath in court.

13) Should not have taken bribe.

14) Should not be corrupt.

15) Should not have bought or sold charas, cocaine, ganja, heroin, marijuana, opium, LSD or such material.

16) Should not be a manufacturer or producer, dealer, dealer, distributor, advertiser, model, stockist or transporter of alcoholic beverages or tobacco products such as beedis, cheeruts, cigars, cigarettes, hookahs etc.

17) Should not be a lawyer who has defended murderers, rapists, molesters and such criminals.

18) Should not have leaked question papers of CAT, CET, JEE and such tests.

19) Should not have committed any crime or crimes whose punishment singly or separately exceeds two years.

20) Should not be a pan eater.

21) Should not be involved in spot-fixing or match-fixing.

22) Should not have undergone artificial sex change.

23) Should not be a defaulter of loan or a partner of a firm or director of a company that has defaulted on loan or asked for corporate debt restructuring.

24) Should not be a hacker of computer.

25) Should not have planted virus, worm or Trojan horse in computer.

26) Should not be a plagiarist.

27) Should not be an astrologer, black magician, numerologist, palmist, sorcerer, tarot card reader or witch.

28) Should not be the owner or a partner of a firm or director of a company or editor or printer or publisher of newspaper or magazine that publishes astrological columns.