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Article clipped from The Guardian

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Dr Zakir Husain Election threat to Mrs Gandhi From INDER MALHOTRA Communal element New Delhi, May 5 India was tonight poised on the brink of its most significant Presidential election since independence, which may have profound political repercussions in weeks to come More than 500 MPs and nearly a. 3,000 members of State Assemblies will vote tomorrow to decide whether the Congress Party nominee, Dr Zakir Husain, or the candidate of the Opposition parties, Mr Subba Rao, will become the next President. That is the situation on the surface. In reality, the contest between Mrs Gandhi and those who are determined to pull her down from office of Prime Minister. Dr Husain is considered not so much a candidate of the Congress as of the Prime Minister personally : the Congress PresiMr Kamaraj, was unenthusiatic about his candidature, and Opposition parties are hoping that disgruntled Congressmen will vote against Dr Iusain. Communal element Should this happen and Dr Husain lose the election, legally and constitutionally Mrs Gandhi would remain unaffected, but politically she might be embarrassed and even destroyed. Another factor which raises the hopes of Congress defections is the communal element that has been introduced into the campaign. The militant Hindu organisation Jana Sangh has gone 'to the limits of scurrility in denouncing Dr Husain as a potential Pakistani. Curiously, the Communists are the only political party to protest against this communal and propaganda. All other parties, Congress, are strangely silent. Mrs Gandhi blamed rather than the Jana Sangh, is More curiously, Mrs. Gandhi, being blamed for having introduced the communal element into the Presidential contest. All that Mrs Gandhi had done was to say that if Dr Husain was not elected, India's secular image would be tarnished. of Another issue is the concept Presidency in India. Mrs Gandhi and some others maintain that the Indian President is no more than a constitutional figure-head, something like the Monarch in Britain. But some of the principal sponsors of Mr Subba Rao have taken stand that the President is the chief executive, and has a positive and personal role to play In the Government of India.
Article from 06 May 1967The Guardian(London, Greater London, England)
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