Pranab Mukherjee as President: What CIOs feel

BANGALORE, INDIA: Come July 25, and Pranab Mukherjee will be sworn-in as the 13th President of India.

The veteran politician from the Congress stable beat National Democratic Alliance's candidate P.A. Sangma fair and square in the race to become the next President after incumbent Pratibha Patil, by securing a little above 69 per cent of votes. He even benefited from cross-voting by opposition legislators, allegedly in Karnataka.

Following his election as the President, Mukherjee has assured the nation that he would try and fulfill expectations to defend, preserve and protect the Constitution. "The hatred between political parties bothers me... I have no hard feelings for anyone... I will be everybody's President."

Not that there are no other stumbling blocks he is up against. Shiv Sena, which supported Mukherjee in the Presidential Election, lobbed a bouncer at him on Sunday, when it demanded that he should reject Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru's mercy plea.

The President-Elect, however, has said that he would study the case only after taking over. "I can't comment on Afzal Guru until I have assumed office and gone through the issue."

In this scenario, CIOL checked with a few chief information officers (CIOs) of reputed organizations on what they had to say about Pranabda's election as the next President and about their expectations of him.

Also read: Pranab Mukherjee: 5 facts you didn't know

As to be expected, the opinions were diverse, from 'zero expectation to high hopes'.

In the view of Anuradha Roy, general manager at Steel Authority of India Limited, Mukherjee is expected to be honest, fair and put in hard work in his new position. But Atul Bansal, vice-president, Operations & IT, at Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd., Mumbai, said that he doesn't hope for much from any politician. "He (Mukherjee) has no power at all. I have zero expectation from any politician (to deliver the goods)," he quipped.

The entire exercise of the Presidential polls is a non-event, termed R. Arivazhagan, senior general manager - IT at HDFC Ltd. "I don't think anything will be different now (from what it's been)," he said.

According to Prakash Pradhan, head-IT and CIO at Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals Ltd., "What can a President do for India? It's not President's direct rule here and ours is a democratic set-up, where citizens have all the powers. One can't expect them to bring about any changes drastically in the system."

Not everybody has lost hopes, though. "He is the custodian of our Constitution. It's a great responsibility and he has to ensure that all the Constitutional rights and points are adhered to," said  He (Mukherjee) is a mature politician and people are expecting good results from him."

They have spoken. What do you think about the election of Pranab Mukherjee as the new President of India? Let us know.