Media Goof up: Pranab 13th or 14th President of India?

The Indian media, on Sunday, seemed to be either ignorant or clueless about the number of Presidents India has had

By Francis Adams

Students preparing for a current affairs test might have been puzzled over media reports, on Sunday, that announced Pranab Mukherjee as both India's 13th as well as 14th President.

IBNLive led the blunderers battalion by first publishing a report titled "List of Presidents of India" at 11.30 am (see http://bit.ly/NIcWFm ) that began with "India will get its 14th  President on Sunday." and followed it up with another report, published at 6.29pm headlined "Pranab wins, to be become the 13th President of India" (see bit.ly/LE6JpF ). 

Further scrutiny revealed IBNLive was not alone. The Hindu,  considered to be among the most accurate in fact and stat-based reportage in India seemed to have published an article, two days ago, anointing Mukherjee as possibly the 14th President. An alert reader seems to have drawn the publication's attention to the goof-up by writing "Pranab Mukherjee deemed as the 14th. President of the country? Is it because number thirteen is treated as unlucky number in some countries ..." (see  http://bit.ly/MATQPr ).

The Hindu's editorial staff corrected the error later with a clarification at the end of the article that read: "The headline for this article has been changed to reflect the fact that Mr Pranab Mukherjee is likely to be the 13th person to be sworn in as President." (see http://bit.ly/ObAYq8 ). Fair on the publication's part.  

Unfortunately, The Hindu repeated the mistake again, on Sunday, when it reported that "Pranab Mukherjee was today elected as the 14th President of India, marking a new journey for the veteran Congress leader after over four decades of life in active politics." (see http://bit.ly/MPN9Yu ).

The Daily News & Analysis, the Daily Pioneer, Sahara Samay, MoneyControl, Hindustan Times, OneIndia, NewsTrack India, TimesNow, The Week, Daily Bhaskar and a few others followed the Ooops! path by announcing Mukherjee as the 14th President. (see http://bit.ly/Qd49i5 ).

The fact is Mukherjee has been elected the Republic of India's 13th President. The confusion over the 14th may have arisen because it is the 14th Presidential election. The first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad served two terms from 1952 to 1962. 

Here's the complete detail and background history of previous Presidential elections according to the Election Commission of India (See "Election to the office of the President of India" http://bit.ly/MLzxvV )

Contrary to the lapse by the media, the ECI has ensured that it does not go wrong in any way, not even when it comes to a trivial matter such as what should the election booth be called in the Hindi language during  polling by the electoral college. "There is an error in the Hindi version of this instruction in the Authority Letter. The word (Matadaan Kendra) written in Hindi version of the Authority Letter may be correctly read as (Voting Compartment) instead of  (Matadaan Kendra)," the ECI declared. (See http://bit.ly/OhR81p ).

To know more details about the Presidential election see : http://bit.ly/O8TkKb