Saturday, May 26, 2012

Save the Rashtrapati Bhawan from Caste Politics

“We want a tribal President. Pranab Mukherjee is competent but time has come for a President from the Scheduled Tribes community,” stated PA Sangma in an interview to one of the TV channels, he added, “It has been 60 years, there has been President from all communities but ours.” And with the bugle cry of “tribal for President” Mr. Sangma kicked off his campaign for the August office of India’s 13th President.

As Mr. Sangma continued to expound on his theme of “tribal for President” I was reminded of a scene we are witness to daily, if you observe at many of the small traffic islands that dot our cities there will invariably be a bunch of street children playing. Whenever the signal turns red and the traffic comes to a stop, one of the older kids picks up an infant and carrying it in the arms goes from vehicle to vehicle asking for alms. As the signal turns green the kid returns to the island and continues with the game until the signal turns red again, when another kid picks up an infant to go begging. There is a striking similarity in the kids using the infant as an aid to begging and Mr. Sangma’s parading of tribal MP’s to garner support for his bid to the Presidents office.

It is ironic that Mr. Sangma, a sitting MP, former speaker of the Lok Sabha, erstwhile  CM of Meghalaya, former Union Cabinet Minster, stakes his claim to be the First Citizen of India, not on the basis of his considerable achievements but on his Scheduled Tribe status. His efforts making his tribal status the central issue for the Presidential bid is a manifestation of the decay that has been plaguing our body politic for years.

Sangma is not alone in trying to tarnish the Presidential elections with the taint of caste, religion and gender based politics, according to reports Jayalalitha and Naveen Patnaik's decision to root for PA Sangma as a Presidential poll candidate was prompted by their "understanding" that Sonia Gandhi would eventually pick a tribal leader as the UPA nominee. Also there are speculations raging on the acceptability of other potential candidates like Hamid Ansari, Meira Kumar, Abdul Kalam etc. sadly no one seems interested in talking about their achievements, the issues seems to be focused on the impact their respective nominations may have on the vote banks.

Today it is Sangma and his supporters demanding India’s first Tribal President, next time it may be a clamour for a Kashmiri, a Gujarati, a Parsi, where will it end. If we continue to hurtle down the path of caste and religion based politics, a time may come when all religious and caste denominations demand the President of India be elected solely from among their caste or Community on a round robin basis. Is this what India in the 21st century aspires to.

Over the years we Indians have been conditioned to turn a blind eye to the communalization and castification of policy. But to reduce the election for the Highest Office the country has to offer, to the lowest common denominator is sacrilegious. The President of India is not a consolation prize, you award to a person, race or community for services rendered. It is a position of responsibility and honor requiring the highest moral standards and personal integrity, the President is the bulwark that protects and safeguards the Constitution and the Citizens from the vagaries and ineptitude of the Parliament. We the people of India would like to look up to the President for what he/she stands for and not have the image diminished by the tag of religion or caste.

No one denies Sangma’s credentials to be the future President of India, what we object to is his exploitation of caste to make it to the august office. Sangma and Jayalalitha need to apologize to the Nation for having committed the heinous crime of belittling the stature of the President of India. We the people of India, demand that the hallowed portals of the Rashtrapati Bhawan not be sullied by the divisive forces of caste or religion. We want the political parties to take a collective oath to protect and safeguard the sanctity of the Rashtrapati Bhawan from this cult of divisive politics.