AHMEDABAD: As India readies to create history by installing its first woman President, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has issued a virtual %u2018diktat%u2019 to President-designate Pratibha Patil %u2014 "Promise to keep persons of foreign origin away from the PM%u2019s post and hang Parliament attack mastermind Mohammad Afzal."
In a note faxed to newspaper offices, Modi "appealed" to Patil to make three promises before she filed her nomination for the highest office %u2014 that she would not allow any person of foreign origin (read %u2018Sonia Gandhi%u2019), to be sworn inas prime minister; promise to hang Afzal, the mastermind behind the attack on Parliament. Patil should also not accept the vote of Lalu Prasad who protested the women%u2019s reservation Bill in the Parliament.
Modi has obviously resigned himself to the fact that Patil is set to make it as President. Yet, Modi, whose chief ministerial repertoire is dominated by campaigns to promote women and girl-children, not only opposed Patil%u2019s candidature, but also made it clear that he was all for APJ Abdul Kalam repeating his term and described him as "a person representing the minority community."
A mercy petition for Mohammad Afzal has been pending before Kalam since October last year. Currently, even a section of the minorities are against Patil for her remarks on the veil.
Modi also hit out at the Congress for ignoring public sentiment. He said that when the "entire nation" wanted Kalam to
