Fervent Wishes

As a young woman I was always keen on the idea that “equal rights for all” was to mean exactly that…unqualified… sans spin. Even when I was disappointed with the inequalities in the world around me I did not believe “some are more equal than others”.

Times happily changed and I saw poor men become rich, women lead space voyages and the lowly defeated find achievement.

Please understand that I am a human being who rejoices in the time and space that I was born.

Please understand that I am a human being who rejoices in the time and space that I was born, raised and am living in.

My fervent wish besides the fall of communism (which happened) and the bridging of the north-south divide (which is happening) was that India – the largest democracy in the world and America, the most powerful democracy, would each see a woman president some day.

India has led the way with a woman prime minister in Indira Gandhi but the last presidential candidate, Captain Lakshmi Sahgal, lost out to the current president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam four years ago.

An electoral college of Indian state and federal legislators are now on the threshold of electing the country’s first female president.

Like Hillary Rodham Clinton, the only US female presidential candidate, Pratibha Patil is a lawyer, a champion of the poor and the downtrodden seeking better education, healthcare for all and a better deal for women and children.

Pratibha has been an only woman governor and is a seasoned politician while Hillary has been a first lady.

Both have controversy surrounding them wherever they go and both have the gumption to see it through with the help of supporting husbands Devisingh Shekawat and former president Bill Clinton.

As we go to press Pratibha Patil has not yet won but if she does it will be another one of my fervent wishes granted.

And if she does become the first Indian female president after 60 years of independence should the 231-year-old most powerful democracy in the world be left behind?
I do hope I’m going to see it happen in my lifetime.

* Is India ready for a female president? Vote in our poll.

editor@alnisrmedia.com
www.xpress4me.com/letters