It is painful to see a low-grade political campaign unfurled against UPA presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee by his opponents. Shades of calumny are discernible in what has been put out publicly by Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik against Mr Mukherjee.
No less distressing is the patently untrue charge laid at Mr Mukherjee’s door by a rival, Purno A. Sangma. Never before has the presidential election been made to go down to such low depths.
Before checking facts Mr Sangma earlier this week asked the returning officer for the presidential election to cancel Mr Mukherjee’s nomination on the ground that the latter was chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, and was thus guilty of holding an office of profit. The facts, however, suggest that the UPA nominee resigned as ISI chairman before filing his nomination. Besides, the chairmanship of ISI is not any longer counted as an office of profit.
It is shocking that a presidential candidate should make false allegations. How should the system deal with such a personage? It is a pity that the BJP should subscribe to Mr Sangma’s untrue views. As for Mr Patnaik, he has accused Mr Mukherjee of buying votes by giving financial assistance to West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. These grants were decided before the former finance minister filed his nomination. In any case, West Bengal’s Trinamul Congress has, despite this bonanza, so far not backed Mr Mukherjee. Those hurling base charges have not upheld the constitutional dignity of the high office of Rashtrapati.