Pratibha Patil: Who, Why?

You can call me politically ignorant, but the headline of this post was my first reaction on reading the ‘Breaking News’ scrolling on my office PC. The second thought that came to my mind, before the news came in about her real status, was that she might be Shivraj Patil’s wife. It seems I wasn’t the only one to think so:

Pratibha Patil was such a dark horse that a DMK leader even asked innocently whether she was the wife of Shivraj Patil when he was first told her name.

Outlook‘s cover story reads “68% Feel Pratibha Patil is the Right Choice to be the President.” What a revelation! I have played with statistics for a few years of my life and know how to make them tell your angle of the story. The poll conducted by Cfore on behalf of Outlook interviewed 1,238 women, but forgot to ask their respondents a very crucial question – Did they know who Pratibha Patil was before her name cropped up? In case they did, I would like to know of the results.

Another question should’ve been – Who would you opt for, Kalam or Pratibha? The cover story will have been a lot different then, but then it wouldn’t augur well with the Congress’ point of view.

A woman President is a welcome change. But I (and I believe the majority of the nation, irrespective of ‘opinion polls’) need to be convinced more about a certain Pratibha Patil. After all, after Dr APJ Abdul Kalam our expectations have risen.