Pratibha Patil

Early life

Patil was born on 19 December 1934 in the village of Nadgaon in Jalgaon district, Maharashtra, to a Marathi-speaking family. The ancestor of the family, Ramji Solanki, had come from Tonk in Rajasthan during the Maratha era and was given a jagir in Narnala, which his descendants then shifted to Nadgaon. She was the daughter of Narayanrao Patil, who was a laywer. She was educated initially at R. R. Vidyalaya town and subsequently was awarded a master's degree in Political Science and Economics by Mooljee Jetha College, Jalgaon (then under Poona University), and then a Bachelor of Law degree by Government Law College, Bombay, affiliated to the University of Bombay (now University of Mumbai). Patil then began to practice law at the Jalgaon District Court, while also taking interest in social issues such as improving the conditions faced by Indian women.

Patil married Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat on 7 July 1965. The couple has a daughter, Jyoti Rathore and a son, Raosaheb Shekhawat, who is also a politician.

Political career

In 1962, at the age of 27, she was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for the Jalgaon constituency. After that she won in the Muktainagar (formerly Edlabad) constituency on four consecutive occasions between 1967 and 1985, before becoming a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha between 1985 and 1990. In the 1991 elections for the 10th Lok Sabha, she was elected as a Member of Parliament representing the Amravati constituency.

Patil had held various Cabinet portfolios during her period in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and held official positions in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. In addition, she had been the president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee for a few years. Also, she held office as Director of the National Federation of Urban Co-operative Banks and Credit Societies and as a Member of the Governing Council of the National Co-operative Union of India.

On 8 November 2004 she was appointed the 17th Governor of Rajasthan, the first woman to hold that office.

Presidential election

Main article: 2007 Indian presidential election

Patil was announced as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate on 14 June 2007. She emerged as a compromise candidate after the left-wing parties of the alliance would not agree to the nomination of former Home Minister Shivraj Patil or Karan Singh. Patil had been loyal to the INC and the Nehru–Gandhi family for decades and this was considered to be a significant factor in her selection by INC leader Sonia Gandhi, although Patil said that she had no intention of being a "rubber-stamp president".

In the same month that she was selected as a member of the UPA, Patil was accused of shielding her brother, G. N. Patil, in the 2005 Vishram Patil murder case. Vishram Patil had narrowly defeated G. N. Patil in an election to be the President of the District Congress Committee of Jalgaon and in September of that year had been murdered. Vishram Patil's widow eventually accused G. N. Patil of involvement in the crime and claimed that Pratibha Patil had influenced the criminal investigation and that the issue needed to be examined before presidential immunity became active. Her accusations were rejected by the courts in 2009 but in 2015 G. N. Patil was charged. No reference to the alleged involvement of Pratibha Patil was made at this time.

Due to the presidential role being largely a figurehead position, the selection of the candidate is often arranged by consensus among the various political parties and the candidate runs unopposed. Contrary to the normal pattern of events, Patil faced a challenge in the election. The BBC described the situation as "the latest casualty of the country's increasingly partisan politics and [it] highlights what is widely seen as an acute crisis of leadership". It "degenerated into unseemly mudslinging between the ruling party and the opposition". although the Shiv Sena party, which was a part of NDA, supported her because of her Marathi origin.

Those opposed to Patil becoming president claimed that she lacked charisma, experience, and ability. They also highlighted her time spent away from high-level politics and queried her belief in the supernatural, such as her claim to have received a message from Dada Lekhraj, a dead guru. Various specific issues were raised, such as a comment made by her in 1975 that those suffering from hereditary diseases should be sterilised. The parliamentary affairs minister denied any wrongdoing on Patil's part and noted that the funds are used under MPLADS, by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

Patil won the election held on 19 July 2007. She garnered nearly two-thirds of the votes and, on 25 July 2007, took oath as India's 12th President, the first woman to hold the position.

President of India (2007–2012)

Patil's term as the President of India saw various controversies and is widely considered as lackluster. She commuted death sentences of 35 petitioners to life, a record. President's Office, however, defended this by saying that President had granted clemency to the petitioners after due consideration and examining the advice of the Home Ministry.

Patil was noted for having spent more money on foreign trips, and having taken a greater number of foreign trips, than any previous president. Sometimes accompanied by as many as 11 members of her family, there had been 12 foreign trips spanning 22 countries by May 2012, when she was away on her 13th trip. Those completed travels had cost Rs 205 crore (Rs 2.05 billion). The Ministry of External Affairs said that taking family members "was not abnormal".

The Office of President has a five-year term and Patil retired from the role in July 2012.

Patil allegedly used public funds to build a retirement mansion on a 260000 sqft plot of military land in Pune. Tradition is that a retiring president either takes residence in Government accommodation in Delhi or moves back to their residence in their home state; her use of government money to build a retirement home at the end of the presidential term was unprecedented. Other controversies that arose after her retirement included her desire to claim both an official government car and fuel allowance for the running of a private car, despite rules clearly stipulating that this was an either/or situation. She also took possession of many gifts that had been given to her in her official role and was later forced to return them.

Business interests

Patil set up Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, an educational institute which runs a chain of schools and colleges in Amravati, Jalgaon, Pune and Mumbai. She also set up Shram Sadhana Trust, which runs hostels for working women in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune; and an engineering college for rural students in Jalgaon district. She also co-founded a cooperative sugar factory known as Sant Muktabai Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana at Muktainagar.

In addition, Patil founded a cooperative bank, Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank, that ceased trading in February 2003 when its licence was cancelled by the Reserve Bank of India. Among other failings, the bank had given illegal loans to her relatives that exceeded the bank's share capital. It had also given a loan to her sugar mill which was never repaid. The bank waived these loans, and this drove it into liquidation. The government liquidator of the bank, P. D. Nigam, said, "The fact that relatives of the founder chairperson (Pratibha Patil) were among those indiscriminately granted loans and that some illegal loan waivers were done has come up in our audit." Six of the top ten defaulters in the bank were linked to her relatives. The INC claimed that Patil had not been involved with the bank since 1994 but The Indian Express reported that it had official documents showing her involvement as late as 2002.

Positions held

Pratibha Patil has held various official offices during her career. These are:

Awards and honours

• Mexico:
  • [[File:MEX Orden del Aguila Azteca 2011 Banda Especial BAR.svg|40px]] Order of the Aztec Eagle, Sash of Special Category (3 August 2018)

References

References

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2. (5 February 2013). "Pratibha pitchforked into presidential race". Business Times.
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4. (17 November 2012). "Bal Thackeray: The mascot of Marathi pride". Business Standard India.
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8. Purohit, Kunal. (11 October 2014). "In Amravati, it's about taking revenge for 2009 polls". Hindustan Times.
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13. (16 June 2007). "I will not be a rubber stamp President". Daily News & Analysis.
14. (22 June 2007). "Congman's wife drags Pratibha name into allegations, NDA distances itself". The Indian Express.
15. (11 December 2009). "Court dismisses lawsuit against president's brother". Thaindian.
16. (8 July 2014). "Court summons brother of Pratibha Patil in murder case". The Indian Express.
17. Pradhan, Bibhudatta. (19 July 2007). "Patil Poised to Become India's First Female President". Bloomberg.
18. (19 July 2007). "Indian MPs vote for new president". BBC.
19. Menon, Meena. (26 June 2007). "Shiv Sena backs Pratibha Patil". [[The Hindu]].
20. (6 July 2007). "For family again: Patil's MP funds for sports complex on land leased to husband society". Indian Express.
21. (21 July 2007). "First female president for India". BBC.
22. Reals, Tucker. (21 July 2007). "India's First Woman President Elected".
23. (12 January 2017). "The Statesman's Yearbook 2009: The Politics, Cultures and Economies of the World". Springer.
24. (12 April 2012). "President Pratibha Patil's brush with controversy". IBN Live.
25. (26 June 2012). "President defends mercy spree to death row convicts". [[The Times of India]].
26. (22 June 2012). "President Pratibha Patil goes on mercy overdrive". [[The Times of India]].
27. (26 March 2012). "President Patil's foreign trips cost Rs 205 crore". The Indian Express.
28. Dhawan, Himanshi. (3 May 2012). "Pratibha Patil took up to 11 relatives on 18 trips in a year". [[The Times of India]].
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30. Kshirsagar, Alka. (25 June 2012). "Pratibha Patil gets retirement home in Pune". Business Line.
31. Joseph, Josy. (15 April 2012). "Pratibha's Pune home a break from tradition". The Times of India.
32. Satish, D. P.. (29 July 2015). "Former President Pratibha Patil wants both car & fuel from government". IBN Live.
33. (19 July 2007). "Pratibha Patil's Resume". [[The Times of India]].
34. (30 September 2007). "Pratibha-founded sugar unit owes bank Rs 17.70 cr". Hindustan Times.
35. Sarin, Ritu. (26 June 2007). "Patil was aware of her bank mess, top defaulters her kin". The Indian Express.
36. "Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India, 2005–06: Appendix Table IV.3: Urban Co-operative Banks Under Liquidation". Reserve Bank of India.
37. (1 June 2019). "Former President Pratibha Patil awarded Mexico's highest civilian honour for foreigners". The Indian Express.
38. "ACUERDO por el que se otorga la Condecoración de la Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca, en grado de Banda en Categoría Especial, a la Excelentísima Señora Pratibha Devisingh Patil, expresidenta de la República de la India".