Cybernoon.com

For a ‘rubber-stamp’ post (as Busybee used to address the Presidents job) there is too much controversy going on currently. Here’s one on past Presidents of India

The most non-controversial President we have had must be Dr. Zakir Hussain. He was a scholar, though not overwhelmingly so, as was Dr. Radhakrishnan, more an academician. He used to wear a sherwani, sport a little grey goatee, dark glasses.
There was not much security for the President in those days, after all, who was going to attack a constitutional and ceremonial head. Anybody could approach him, but I do not think many people went to Rashtrapati Bhavan to see him. Even if they did, it did not make much news.
Dr. Radhkrishanan was the scholar, extremely erudite on matters of philosophy and religion. He was also a bit of a bore. As a reporter, I covered many of his functions. At first, I used to be impressed with his long words, complex thoughts, deep philosophy, then, as I reported him month after month, bringing newsworthy substance out of his philosophy, I found he was repeating himself.
He was known as the philosopher president, we often give such tags to our VVIPs. And he dressed the part; a dark robe, a cream pugree. In his younger days, he used to occasionally wear the French beret. Abroad, he was a big hit. The world was just beginning to develop an interest in Indian philosophy, President Radhakrishnan became its chief spokesman.
I do not think he ever had any problem with Jawaharlal Nehru or Nehru with him.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the first President and he will be remembered for that. Free India required a man of the soil like him as its first President, not an elitist like Dr. Radhakrishnan. Today, though there are reports of his differences with the government, he remains a
father figure.
Not so, Mr. V.V. Giri. No President campaigned for his own election as much as he did, and often he was quite undignified about it. I remember once his rolling up his sleeves and displaying his small muscles. His wife never talked in English, she had sworn not to, because it was a foreign language. There were also stories of Mrs. Giri going to state banquets abroad with an ADC carrying her tiffin-carrier.
Mr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was a President of the Emergency. Most of the time he spent
putting his signature to Mrs. Gandhi's Emergency ordinances.
And Mr. Sanjiv Reddy was, perhaps, more controversial than Mr. Zail Singh. First, he was let down by Mrs. Gandhi, then he let down the Janta government.
Now, after Mr. Zail Singh, we will have to be very, very careful who we choose as our next President. Because, suddenly, it has become as important to have a good President as it has been to have a good Prime Minister.
May 7, 1987