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This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses. Pratibha Patil Pratibha Patil

Pratibha Patil as the Governor of Rajasthan Governor of Rajasthan In office November 8, 2004 – June 21, 2007 Preceded by 	T. V. Rajeshwar Succeeded by 	A. R. Kidwai Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) In office 1985 – 1996 Constituency 	Amravati Member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly In office 1962 – 1985 Born 	December 19, 1934 (1934-12-19) (age 72) Nadgaon Political party 	Congress (I) Spouse 	Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat Residence 	(present) 11, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi (temporary) Worli, Mumbai (permanent) Alma mater 	Government Law College, Mumbai Website 	Governor of Rajasthan official website

Pratibha Devisingh Patil (प्रतिभा पाटील) (born December 19, 1934) is an Indian National Congress politician who is the candidate of the ruling United Progressive Alliance and the Left Front for President of India. The presidential election is to take place on 19 July 2007. A lawyer by training, she was the 16th Governor of Rajasthan and its first female governor. She was deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha between 1986 and 1988.

Earlier, from 1962 to 1985, Pratibha Patil was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, representing constituencies from Jalgaon District. From 1991 to 1996, she represented Amravati in the Lok Sabha. Contents [hide]

* 1 Early life * 2 Political career o 2.1 Post-Emergency Indira loyalist o 2.2 Governor of Rajasthan * 3 Nomination for Presidential Election 2007 * 4 Controversies * 5 Positions held * 6 References * 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Pratibha Patil was born to Narayan Rao in Nadgaon, Maharashtra. She completed her M.A. from M.J. College, Jalgaon, and obtained a Law Degree from the Government Law College, Mumbai. During her college days, she excelled in table tennis, winning shields in inter-college tournaments.[1].In 1962, Pratibha Patil was voted "College Queen" of Mooljee Jaitha (MJ) College in Jalgaon[2] The same year, she won an assembly election from Jalgaon constituency on the Indian National Congress ticket.

She married educator Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat on July 7, 1965[3]. She preferred not to adopt her husband's surname. The couple has a son and a daughter. Together with her husband, she set up an educational institute, Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, which runs a chain of schools and colleges in Jalgaon and Mumbai.[4] She has also set up hostels for working women in New Delhi and Mumbai, an engineering college for rural youths in Jalgaon. She also founded and is the chairperson of a sugar factory in Jalgaon. She was also involved in setting up an Industrial Training School for the blinds in Jalgaon and running a school for poor children of Vimukta Jamatis & Nomadic Tribes.

[edit] Political career

Pratibha Patil joined politics in 1962 at the age of 27. Under the mentorship of senior Congress leader and ex-Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan,[5] she became a deputy minister for education after re-election in 1967 (in the Vasantrao Naik ministry). In her next terms (1972-78) she was a full cabinet minister for the state. In successive congress governments, she handled the portfolios of tourism, social welfare and housing under several chief ministers, Vasantdada Patil, Babasaheb Bhosle, S. B. Chavan and Sharad Pawar. She was continually re-elected to the assembly, either from Jalgaon or the nearby Edlabad constituencies, until 1985, when she was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a Congress candidate. She has never lost an election that she has contested.[6]

[edit] Post-Emergency Indira loyalist

In 1977, the Congress party split up after Indira Gandhi's defeat following the Indian Emergency (1975–1977). Many senior leaders of state Congress(I), including Pratibha's mentor Chavan and his protege Sharad Pawar, as well as much of the rank and file joined the Congress (Urs) party floated by Devraj Urs. However, Pratibha preferred to remain with Indira Gandhi, though it verged on inviting political ridicule.[7] This act of loyalty to the Gandhi family would be remembered later by Rajiv Gandhi and subsequently, Sonia Gandhi.[8] In 1978, when the Congress (Urs) came to power in Maharashtra, she became Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.

In 1980, the Congress (I) swept back into power, and her name was considered a front-runner for the Chief Ministership. However, the post went to Sanjay Gandhi's confidant A. R. Antulay,[9] who was soon forced to resign on corruption charges. Subsequently, she became a minister again in the Vasantdada Patil ministry. Following differences between Patil and the-then Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Prabha Rau, Rajiv Gandhi appointed her as MPCC chief (1988-90).[5] she won from the seat at Amravati, her husband's city, where he had once been mayor,[4] thus joining the national parliament in the 10th Lok Sabha.

She has also served as Director of National Federation of Urban Co-operative Banks & Credit Societies and the Member of Governing Council, National Co-operative, Union of India.

[edit] Governor of Rajasthan

In November 2004, eight years after she had completed her term in the 10th Lok Sabha, Pratibha Patil was recalled from political hibernation[6] to become the first woman Governor of Rajasthan. She was the second politician from Maharashtra in this post, the first being Vasantdada Patil. With Pratibha Patil as Governor, Rajasthan had women in three significant positions of power in the state, including Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Assembly Speaker Sumitra Singh.[10]

In April 2006, the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly passed the Rajasthan Freedom of Religion Bill 2006 (originally titled as "Rajasthan Dharma Swatantrya Bill, 2006"). The objective of the bill was to control "unlawful conversion from one religion to another by allurement or by fraudulent means or forcibly." However, some Christian organizations opposed the bill alleging that the bill was an outcome of the rightist policies of Sangh Parivar.[11][12] However, Pratibha Patil returned the bill unsigned, stating certain clauses in the Bill infringed on "the fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and expression, freedom of conscience and freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion."[13]

The Government of Rajasthan re-sent the bill to her in May 2006 noting that similar anti-conversion laws enacted by Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa over 40 years ago were upheld by the Supreme Court of India and that the head of the Constituent Assembly, Dr B R Ambedkar, while drafting Article 25 of the Constitution had said that it would be best to leave it to the state legislatures to make laws to regulate conversions.[14] After sitting on the bill for over a year she sent it to the President of India just a day before she resigned as governor of Rajasthan. [2] A similar bill named Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act 2006 passed later was promptly signed by the state governor.

Pratibha Patil resigned as the Governor of Rajasthan on June 21, 2007, due to her presidential candidacy.[15]

[edit] Nomination for Presidential Election 2007

Main article: Indian presidential election, 2007

On 14th June, United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the ruling alliance of political parties in India headed by Congress (I), and the Indian left nominated her as their candidate for the Presidential Election to be held on 19 July 2007.[16] She emerged as a compromise candidate after the Left parties would not agree to the nomination of present Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who is widely viewed as bordering on incompetence in this important post. At that point, Sonia Gandhi proposed Pratibha Patil's name. Her loyalty to Nehru-Gandhi family was widely perceived to be a major factor in her nomination as UPA-Left Presidential candidate.[3]

This makes her most likely to become the first female President of India. UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi described her nomination as a "historic occasion" in India's 60th year of independence.

Before leaving Jaipur for New Delhi, she thanked Sonia Gandhi for choosing her and said that her first job as president would be to make National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) started by UPA a success.[17] In Delhi she asserted that she would not be a rubber stamp president.[4]

She filed her nomination in presence of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi before the returning officer P D T Achary.[18]

[edit] Controversies

The Pratibha Co-operative Bank, a cooperative bank set up by Pratibha Patil in 1982 in her name aparently to empower women had its licence revoked in 2003 by the Reserve Bank of India for alleged financial irregularities being the faulty loan policy of the bank and loan interest waivers given, among others, to Pratibha Patil’s relatives brothers and nephews though bank was set up for women.Pratibha Patil was the founding chairperson of the Bank and along with a number of her relatives, was one of its Directors. She is currently one of the 34 respondents in an ongoing case in the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on the subject of mismanagement of the bank and misappropriation of funds by its Managing Directors. Thousand of small women members and depositors are still awaiting repayment of their deposit.[5] [19]

Member of the Amravati People's Co-operative Bank are also awaiting money taken out for mill construction with Pratibha's husband as guarantor, in which the borrower defaulted. [20]

CNN-IBN revealed on June 22, 2007 that a cooperative sugar factory, Muktabai Co-Operative Sugar factory, of which Pratibha is the founder-president, has been declared a defaulter for failing to repay a Rs 17. 5-crore bank loan.[21] The loan was taken in 1994 and officials of the bank claim that the loan has not been repaid. A number of reminders were issued by the bank. In a notice sent eight days ago, the bank threatened to attach the factory's property to the loan.[22] The factory was reportedly inaugarated by Sonia Gandhi on 23 January 1999.

On June 22, 2007, Rajni Patil a professor of Marathi in a Jalgaon college and the widow of murdered Jalgaon congressman G V Patil claimed that her husband was got murdered by Pratibha Patil's brother G.N. Patil. She accused Pratibha Patil of shielding her brother. She further said that she had written to Sonia Gandhi and President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam giving details about the allegation. [23] [24]

The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has called the allegations as dirty tricks of the opposition. [6] “Pratibha-tai is one of the cleanest politicians in the country. I have known her since 1967,” Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told reporters. [7]

On June 17, 2007, Pratibha Patil made controversial remarks on the Purdah system, while addressing a congregation of Rajputs in Udaipur:[25] “ 	Women have always been respected in the Indian culture. The purdah system was introduced to protect them from the Muslim invaders. However, times have changed. India is now independent and hence, the systems should also change. Now that women are progressing in every field, we should morally support and encourage them by leaving such practices behind.[26] 	”

She was criticized by Islamic theologians connected with the Muslim Personal Law Board, for saying that the purdah system was introduced to protect women from Muslim invaders. Maulana Rashid said: “ 	The statement is a clear reflection of Pratibha's mindset about Islam and Muslims. It is better the UPA should change its presidential candidate and opt for a more secular person for this post[27] 	”

[edit] Positions held Period 	Position 1967-72 	Deputy Minister, Public Health, Prohibition, Tourism, Housing & Parliamentary Affairs, Government of Maharashtra 1972-74 	Cabinet Minister, Social Welfare, Government of Maharashtra 1974-75 	Cabinet Minister, Public Health & Social Welfare, Government of Maharashtra 1975-76 	Cabinet Minister, Prohibition, Rehabilitation and Cultural Affairs, Government of Maharashtra 1977-78 	Cabinet Minister, Education, Government of Maharashtra July 1979 to February 1980 	Leader of Opposition, CDP (I), Maharashtra Legislative Assembly 1982-85 	Cabinet Minister, Urban Development and Housing, Government of Maharashtra 1983-85 	Cabinet Minister, Civil Supplies and Social Welfare, Government of Maharashtra November 18, 1986 to November 5, 1988 	Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha 1986-88 	Chairman, Committee of Privileges, Rajya Sabha; Member, Business Advisory Committee, Rajya Sabha 1991-96 	Chairman, House Committee, Lok Sabha November 8, 2004-present 	Governor of Rajasthan Preceded by T. V. Rajeshwar 	Governor of Rajasthan 2004–2007 	Succeeded by To Be Announced

[edit] References