WORLD / Center
India elects first woman president
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-21 20:44
Pratibha Patil, 72, governor of the northwestern desert state of
Rajasthan, smiles as she arrives at the airport for her presidential
campaign, in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh, July 7, 2007.
[Reuters]
NEW DELHI, - India elected its first female president on July 21,
official results showed, in what supporters called a boost for the rights
of millions of downtrodden women, despite a bitter campaign marked by
scandal.
Pratibha Patil, the ruling coalition's 72-year-old nominee for the mainly
ceremonial post, easily beat opposition-backed challenger and standing
Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in a vote by the national
parliament and state politicians.
"This a victory of the people," Patil told reporters after official
results were announced. "I am grateful to the people of India and the men
and women of India and this is a victory for the principles which our
Indian people uphold."
Patil won about two thirds of the electoral college votes. There had
never been any doubt she would win, given support from the ruling
coalition.
The governor of the northwestern desert state Rajasthan, she emerged on
the national stage when the Congress-led coalition and its communist
allies failed to agree on a joint candidate.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, India's most powerful politician, had
called Patil's nomination a "historic moment" and proof the country
"respects women".
Supporters hoped Patil's candidacy would help bring issues that plague
women in India -- like dowry-related violence -- into the public
spotlight.
Her presidency also reflects the growing power of some women in India,
where an increasing number are taking part in the workforce and in
schools and hold senior positions in corporations as India enters the
globalised economy.
As the results of the presidential polls poured in, celebrations in
Rajasthan started, with people singing and dancing as others lit fire
crackers and beat large brass drums.
India has had a few female icons in the past -- most famously Sonia
Gandhi's mother-in-law Indira, who was one of the world's first female
prime ministers in 1966.
Scandal
But hope Patil's presidency would spark only positive talk about women's
influence in India evaporated when it emerged the bank for woman she
helped established was closed in 2003 because of bad debts amid
accusations of financial irregularities.
The employees' union has taken Patil and others to court, claiming loans
meant for poor women were instead given to her brother and other
relatives and not returned. She was also accused of trying to shield her
brother in a murder inquiry.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has dismissed the charges as
"mud-slinging", and Congress says she had very little to do with the
running of the bank.
"All the allegations against me are motivated and have already been
answered," Patil said in a statement last week.
Her campaign was marked by other mishaps as well.
She managed to offend many minority Muslims -- and anger some historians
-- by saying Indian women first veiled their heads as protection against
16th century Muslim invaders.
Then she dismayed modern India by claiming she had experienced a "divine
premonition" that she was destined for higher office from a long dead
spiritual guru.
Critics also dug up a comment she was said to have made as Maharashtra's
health minister in 1975, saying people with hereditary diseases should be
sterilised.
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