Why President should feel helpless

DELHI: Though the terms "propriety" and "accountability" seem to have almost become alien words for governance by self seekers, it would be ridiculous to charge the President, the highest constitutional authority in India, with the same misdemeanour for inaction when only swift action was most expected.
The President alone, neither the Prime Minister nor any other holder of a constitutional post, solemnly affirms "...that I will devote myself to the service and well being of the people of India".
This part of the oath assumes significance in view of erstwhile President K R Narayanan''s belated grievance against the BJP- led NDA government in 2002 for not heeding to his advice to take strong and timely measures to quell the violence in Gujarat. Hundreds of citizens were killed, many women were raped and lots many would suffer agony for all then years to come.
President Narayanan recently opened his heart in an interview. He is reported to have criticised the then Prime Minister Vajpayee for his handling of the post-Godhra situation.
"He (Vajpayee) did not do anything effective. I had sent him letters. I had talked to him directly," Naryanan said. He also claimed that there was a conspiracy involving the state and central governments behind the 2002 Gujarat riots. If the military was given powers to shoot at the perpetrators of violence, recurrence of violence in Gujarat could have been avoided, the supreme commander of the Indian armed forces added.
"I had asked military to be sent to suppress the riots. The Centre had the constitutional responsibility and powers to send military if the state governments asked. The military was sent. But if the military was given powers to shoot at the perpetrators of violence, recurrence of tragedies in Gujarat could have been avoided. However, both the state and central government did not do so," Narayanan said.
"My interventions were democratic and constitutional. Above all, the interests of secularism was involved," he also said. What should one make out of the President''s outbursts at government for the ghastly tragedy which he witnessed like any other ordinary helpless citizen.
President was once called a "rubber stamp" who would only act on the aid and advice of the Union council of ministers, but the "rubber" part of his office brings in flexibility in his powers. President Zail Singh, as an instance, demonstrated this flexibility and took a stiff stand against the Rajiv Gandhi government which wanted to enact a new Telegraph law having some provisions which were not to the linking of Zail Singh. Rajiv Gandhi government had to bow.
We had some Presidents who threatened to convene a joint session of Parliament, a power vested in in the office, to air their views on some issues of larger national interest and troubling him. Then, a President feeling helpless, as President Narayanan might have felt in the face of Gujarat violence, could have addressed the Nation through national broadcast system. Or seek the Supreme Court''s intervention or at least, air it in one his addresses. Unfortunately, President Narayanan''s interview does not disclose any of such methods that he resorted to deal with an extraordinary situation in one part of the Republic.