By IANS
New Delhi : When she moves into the Rashtrapati Bhavan Wednesday, India's first woman president Pratibha Patil will have to make that extra effort to wash off stains thrown up during the presidential campaign.
Although the Congress party asserts that everything the opposition said about her and her family is false, party leaders agree privately that there is a problem on hand.
Even her supporters say that the new president, who will succeed A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, would have to make an effort to clarify the various allegations levelled against her.
"The new president has to restore the dignity and authority of the office. She has to keep it as an office of authority," senior Congress leader Devendra Dwivedi told IANS.
Mukthar Abbas Naqvi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) felt that the first priority for the 72-year-old president elect should be to clear the air.
"Since she has been elected after a long campaign, her first task should be to establish her credibility and prove that she will be unbiased," Naqvi said.
Naqvi's BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has accused Patil of financial improprieties and of shielding her murder accused brother.
Dwivedi, who felt that Kalam had introduced an element of populism into presidency, said the new president would have to bring back "greater restraint and greater correctness".
Kamal Mitra Chenoy, a sociologist, said Patil's testing period would be after the 2009 general elections.
"In 2009, if the Congress does not return to power and if other coalitions are ready to form the government, Patil will have an important role to play," Chenoy told IANS.
But he added: "It does not look like Pratibha Patil is going to be an independent person. She will be acting under Congress pressure."
When Patil takes charge Wednesday, she will have to tackle at least 45 mercy petitions against death sentences pronounced by the Supreme Court and pending before the Rashtrapati Bhavan for a decision.
The most controversial of them is that of Afzal Guru, the main convict in the 2001 terror attack on parliament. The BJP and Shiv Sena have been demanding the immediate execution of the death sentence.