India Elects First Female President

[Lee Chambers]

NEW DELHI (July 21) - India got its first female president Saturday in a victory hailed as a special moment in a country where discrimination against women is often deep-rooted and widespread.

Pratibha Patil, 72, won 65.82 percent of the votes cast by national lawmakers and state legislators, said P.D.T. Achary, the secretary general of Parliament. She had the support of the governing Congress party and its political allies, and had been widely expected to win.

Read the whole story here.

Could this be foreshadowing for changes in the United States?

 

[damppanties]

Read the whole story here.

Could this be foreshadowing for changes in the United States?

The President is just the nominal head of state. The real power is with the Prime Minister. We had a lady Prime Minister as early as 1966.

- Proud Indian.

 

[FatDino]

The President is just the nominal head of state. The real power is with the Prime Minister. We had a lady Prime Minister as early as 1966.

- Proud Indian.

You're hot when you talk like this.

 

[damppanties]

You're hot when you talk like this.

*adjusts glasses*

 

[FatDino]

*adjusts glasses*

*swoons*

Oh, right, enough hijacking.

 

[rgraham666]

Read the whole story here.

Could this be foreshadowing for changes in the United States?

No. It seems to me India is looking to the future. For the most part, the U.S. is trying to hold on to the past.

 

[3113]

*swoons*

Oh, right, enough hijacking.

No, no, do go on...[fetches some popcorn and pulls up a chair]

 

[Carnevil9]

Wasn't Indira Ghandi some sort of prez or PM? She was a long time ago.

 

[S-Des]

No. It seems to me India is looking to the future. For the most part, the U.S. is trying to hold on to the past.

Didn't they just try to jail Richard Gere for kissing a woman in public, about two months ago?

 

[Adi87]

Wasn't Indira Ghandi some sort of prez or PM? She was a long time ago.

Yes she was... But her name was Indira Gandhi

Didn't they just try to jail Richard Gere for kissing a woman in public, about two months ago?

They didn't want to send him to jail... they demanded an apology...


Pratibha Patil (The New President) won by a margin of 3 lakh votes. Several controversies in her name were forged to force her to back down but she still won...

-Another Proud Indian

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

The U.S. will have it's first female and/or black president when someone who is devastatingly competent and fits with the current mood of the nation comes along, just as Britain did with Thatcher. I was going to say Hillary might be too polarizing but then Maggie was certainly that. The perception is that Hillary is very competent (although many people on my side of he ideological divide are terrified of the things she may be competent at.)

 

[TheeGoatPig]

If England having Mageret Thatcher didn't give us any ideas, I don't see why India would. I would think most Americans are more influenced by England than India.

And I'd like to point out at this time that Hilary isn't a women. She is a space alien beast that should be cast out into the sun.

 

[matriarch]

If England having Mageret Thatcher didn't give us any ideas, I don't see why India would. I would think most Americans are more influenced by England than India.

And I'd like to point out at this time that Hilary isn't a women. She is a space alien beast that should be cast out into the sun.

Margaret Thatcher was never a woman........she was a man masquerading as a woman.

*blink*

'She' was a harridan. An evil, divisive, spawn of the devil. I'd rather have Hilary any day, rather than her. I still don't know how this country survived her years in power. I think we're still trying to recover from it.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Margaret Thatcher was never a woman........she was a man masquerading as a woman.

*blink*

'She' was a harridan. An evil, divisive, spawn of the devil.

As I said, not exactly a non-polarizing, "bring us together" politician.

So maybe Hillary does have a chance.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Margaret Thatcher was never a woman........she was a man masquerading as a woman.

*blink*

'She' was a harridan. An evil, divisive, spawn of the devil. I'd rather have Hilary any day, rather than her. I still don't know how this country survived her years in power. I think we're still trying to recover from it.

So you are saying that Thatcher was from the same planet as Hilary, and they both deserve the same fate?

 

[ishtat]

Margaret Thatcher was never a woman........she was a man masquerading as a woman.

*blink*

'She' was a harridan. An evil, divisive, spawn of the devil. I'd rather have Hilary any day, rather than her. I still don't know how this country survived her years in power. I think we're still trying to recover from it.

Matriarch is invariably the most commonsensical person on this site but this is without doubt the silliest comments I have ever read from her .

It firstly ignores the fact that by 1979 the country was in economic ruin and also ignores the fact that Labour under Blair and Brown have adopted almost entirely her reforms.It does the Labour movement no service at all to demonize Thatcher as so many have done in recent times. Sure she made some big mistakes but she also had the courage to do some very difficult but necessary things. Abuse, no matter how sincerely felt is not debate.

 

[3113]

The U.S. will have it's first female and/or black president when someone who is devastatingly competent and fits with the current mood of the nation comes along

Bush has proved that devastatingly competent is not a requirement for the office of president

 

[S-Des]

Bush has proved that devastatingly competent is not a requirement for the office of president

Yes, but do you really want the first woman or minority president to measure up to his standards?

 

[damppanties]

Yes, but do you really want the first woman or minority president to measure up to his standards?

Do you think anyone, male or female, can be worse?

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Do you think anyone, male or female, can be worse?

Oh yeah.

 

[damppanties]

Oh yeah.

Really?

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Coitainly.

Actually, Bush is a piker. Now Wilson - there was a man that could get us into wars where our participation led to millions of deaths, directly and indirectly (WWI). And attacks on the principles embodied in the Constitution - the federal income tax and the federal reserve, anyone? Both came about on his watch and with his active support. (To his credit, they changed the Consititution the old fashioned way back then - by the amendment process specified therein. Since they just ignore it, and hire judges who redefine it in ways that allow this.)

 

[ishtat]

Coitainly.

Actually, Bush is a piker. Now Wilson - there was a man that could get us into wars where our participation led to millions of deaths, directly and indirectly (WWI). And attacks on the principles embodied in the Constitution - the federal income tax and the federal reserve, anyone? Both came about on his watch and with his active support. (To his credit, they changed the Consititution the old fashioned way back then - by the amendment process specified therein. Since they just ignore it, and hire judges who redefine it in ways that allow this.)

This is factually wrong. The millions were already dead in WW1 before the USA's or Wilson's involvement and US casualties were light compared with either Germany, France, Russia, Britain, Austria or Italy.

The US President who by a very large margin still had the greatest number of war deaths on his watch was of course the great Republican Abe Lincoln.

Annoying isn't it, the way facts get in the way of rhetoric!

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

This is factually wrong. The millions were already dead in WW1 before the USA's or Wilson's involvement and US casualties were light compared with either Germany, France, Russia, Britain, Austria or Italy.

The US President who by a very large margin still had the greatest number of war deaths on his watch was of course the great Republican Abe Lincoln.

Annoying isn't it, the way facts get in the way of rhetoric!

Now now -

From the moment the U.S. formally entered the war - if not before - our involvement wrecked any chance of a negotiated settlement betwees he parties. This allowed the war to continue for another 18 months, which meant hundreds of thousands of additional battlefieild deaths, and perhaps millions more due to stresses imposed on civillian populations.

The indirect death toll resulting from the failure to acheive a negotiated settlement is potentially staggering - all the deaths attributable to the Russian Revolution, and all the deaths in WWII. Granted those are based on speculation that a negotiated settlement may have generated a less toxic outcome, but that is not at all implausible.

BTW, how many deaths would have resulted from having two powerful and hostile neighbors eyeball-to-eyeball across the Mason Dixon line had the South succeeded in breaking away? Harry Turtledove has a series of (mediocre) novels that explore this sobering possiblity. Imagine trench warfare in Kentucky and Ontario in 1914-1918, with the South allied to Britain and France and the North with Germany. Again highly speculative, but you're the one who introduced Lincoln's body count, so it's fair to ponder the alternative.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

The President is just the nominal head of state. The real power is with the Prime Minister. We had a lady Prime Minister as early as 1966.

- Proud Indian.

Yes, I was going to mention Indira Gandhi...

What is the President's role in Indian government?