Sujit De
Kajal Chatterjee’s article, “Process of Presidential race” (Herald, People’s edit, June 25) has brought some critical questions to the fore. Should we consider demographic credentials i.e. caste, language, religion, etc. of a person while selecting her/ him as a presidential candidate? Should not we focus on her/ his merit only? Can symbolic representation of a Dalit in Rashtrapati Bhavan change anything?
A country which has a rainbow of languages, states, castes, cultures and religions, can in no way ignore demographic credentials of a person in a political space. Indeed, all the Members of Parliament are being elected on the basis of their demographic credentials. Every state of our country sends as many MPs to the Parliament as in proportion to its population. No federal country can afford to do away with this system and introduce meritocratic yardstick. Indian cricket team, where merit is the sole criterion of selection, does not have any representation of many states of our country. It is okay for a cricket team. But it would be ludicrous if our Parliament fails to have representation of all the Indian states. Our Parliament is not a merit-all cricket team! It has to ensure representation of Dalits, women, minorities and from small states like Tripura.
Moreover, we need to give priority to demographic credentials as century-old brainwash projecting Dalits as eligible only for menial jobs goes deep not only into the minds of casteists but in Dalits’ psyche as well. Even Dalits are not free from regressive Dalit ‘inferiority’ complex as it happened in Hitler’s Germany where some Jews themselves started doubting about their own potentiality only after a few years of Goebbelsian propaganda.
That was why Mahatma Gandhi wanted a Dalit woman as India’s first President but his suggestion was turned down. At a public address on June 27, 1947, he said, “If I have my way, the President of the Indian Republic will be a chaste and brave Bhangi girl… if such a girl of my dreams becomes President, I shall be her servant and I shall not expect from the Government even my upkeep.”
