Pratibha Patil
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Pratibha Devisingh Patil (born 19 December 1934), also known as Pratibha Patil Shekhawat, is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the
president of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...
from 2007 to 2012. She was the first woman to become the president of India. A member of the
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...
, she also served as the Governor of Rajasthan from 2004 to 2007, and was a member of the
Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...
from 1991 to 1996.


Early life

Patil was born in a Marathi family on 19 December 1934 in the village of Nadgaon in
Jalgaon Jalgaon () is a city in the state of Maharashtra, India. The city is located in North Maharashtra in the subregion of Khandesh, and serves as the administrative headquarters of its namesake district, the Jalgaon district. In the subregion of ...
,
Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
. She was the daughter of Narayan Rao Patil. 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 Jalgaon () is a city in the state of Maharashtra, India. The city is located in North Maharashtra in the subregion of Khandesh, and serves as the administrative headquarters of its namesake district, the Jalgaon district. In the subregion of ...
(then under Poona University), and then a Bachelor of Law degree by Government Law College, Bombay, affiliated to the
University of Bombay University of Mumbai is a public university, public List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, state university in Mumbai. It is one of the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest univ ...
(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 Ramsingh 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 Muktainagar (formerly Edlabad) is a town in Jalgaon district, Maharashtra, India. It is the administrative headquarter of its Muktainagar taluka, eponymous taluka. It is located in North Maharashtra region. It located near bank of Purna River ...
(formerly Edlabad) constituency on four consecutive occasions between 1967 and 1985, before becoming a Member of Parliament in the
Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...
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. A period of retirement from politics followed later in the decade. Patil had held various Cabinet portfolios during her period in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and held official positions in both the
Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...
and
Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...
. 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

Patil was announced as the
United Progressive Alliance The United Progressive Alliance (UPA; Hindi: Saṁyukta Pragatiśīl Gaṭhabandhan) was a Political group, political alliance in India led by the Indian National Congress. It was formed after the 2004 Indian general election, 2004 general ele ...
(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 Sonia Gandhi (, ; ; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest-serving president of the Indian National Congress, a big-tent liberal political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independence history. ...
, 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 In politics, a figurehead is a practice of who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet '' de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that ...
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 thighlights what is widely seen as an acute crisis of leadership". It "degenerated into unseemly mudslinging between the ruling party and the opposition". Her challenger was Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the incumbent vice-president and a
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
(BJP) veteran. Shekhawat stood as an independent candidate and was supported by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a group led by the BJP, 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 Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...
. Various specific issues were raised, such as a comment made by her in 1975 that those suffering from hereditary diseases should be sterilised. Another alleged that while a Member of Parliament for
Amravati Amravati (/Marathi phonology, əmᵊɾɑʋᵊt̪iː/) is a city in Maharashtra located in the Vidarbha region. It is the ninth largest city in Maharashtra, India & second largest city in the Vidarbha region in terms of population. It is the ...
she diverted Rs 3.6 million from her MPLADS fund to a trust run by her husband. This was in violation of Government rules which barred MPs from providing funds to organisations run by their relatives. 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.


Presidency

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 Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...
(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 plot of military land in
Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
. 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 Amravati (/Marathi phonology, əmᵊɾɑʋᵊt̪iː/) is a city in Maharashtra located in the Vidarbha region. It is the ninth largest city in Maharashtra, India & second largest city in the Vidarbha region in terms of population. It is the ...
,
Jalgaon Jalgaon () is a city in the state of Maharashtra, India. The city is located in North Maharashtra in the subregion of Khandesh, and serves as the administrative headquarters of its namesake district, the Jalgaon district. In the subregion of ...
,
Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
and
Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
. She also set up Shram Sadhana Trust, which runs hostels for working women in
New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
,
Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
and
Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
; 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 Muktainagar (formerly Edlabad) is a town in Jalgaon district, Maharashtra, India. It is the administrative headquarter of its Muktainagar taluka, eponymous taluka. It is located in North Maharashtra region. It located near bank of Purna River ...
. 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 Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is the central bank of the Republic of India, and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system and Indian rupee, Indian currency. Owned by the Ministry of Finance (India), Min ...
. 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 ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...
'' 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

*: ** Order of the Aztec Eagle, ''Sash of Special Category'' (3 August 2018)


See also

* Presidency of Pratibha Patil * List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government


References


External links


President of India Official Site

Ex-President of India Pratibha Patil's Official Site
()
Ex-President Pratibha Patil's Personal Site (www.pratibha patil.info)
* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Patil, Pratibha 20th-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian women lawyers 1934 births 20th-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian politicians 21st-century Indian women politicians Deputy chairmen of the Rajya Sabha Educators from Maharashtra Governors of Rajasthan India MPs 1991–1996 Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra Leaders of the opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Living people Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra Marathi people People from Amravati People from Jalgaon district Presidents of India Rajya Sabha members from Maharashtra Women educators from Maharashtra Women members of the Lok Sabha Women members of the Rajya Sabha Women presidents in Asia Women state governors of India 20th-century presidents in Asia First women presidents 21st-century women presidents