BY SHANTAM SAHAI
Pratibha Devisingh Patil, the 12th President of India, is a lawyer and a politician. She was the first woman President of India. From the year 2004 to 2007, she had served as the Governor of Rajasthan. As President, she is infamous for the foreign trips that always had at least 2-11 family members accompanying her.
RTI details accessed by activist S C Agrawal expose an expense of $40 million from the taxpayer's money in her 22 trips. Even though the government had said family members accompanying the President was a "normal diplomatic practice", we cannot ignore the fact that Presidents are supposed to meet foreign dignitaries and improve diplomatic relationships & cultural exchange- none of which was done by Ms. Patil.
Also, her self-appraisal of 300% salary hike and alleged misuse of government's money on a mansion in Pune (which is probably a retirement home for post-Presidency period) go quite unprecedented. More importantly, the 260,000 sq.ft plot belonged to war widows. In comparison to her predecessor, APJ Abdul Kalam, she is known to have done a precise 'nothing'. While Dr. Kalam was known to take bold political moves to keep the government on track, Ms. Patil's actions have a history of triggering anger among Indian citizens.
Pratibha Patil's history has a long list of alleged involvements in various scams like the chit fund scam, tsunami relief scam, and felicitation scam. Therefore, the whole idea of 'Pratibha Patil as President' is treated as a speculation of Congress high-command (in other words, the Gandhi family) that tendered no objection to anything done by the UPA government. The very reason being, she never commanded the reputation her predecessors did.
Though, many have not made peace with her successor as well.
Here are some facts you should know about the first woman president of India: