By Patricia Mukhim
At no time in the history of this country has any individual actually campaigned to become president. Also it seems that with the passage of years political parties are hell bent on completely politicising this august post. It began when Pratibha Patil was literally plucked out of nowhere and put into that high office. The Congress-led UPA simply bulldozed its decision because it had the numbers then. That Patil is a woman is only symbolic. It is doubtful if she has the grounding and sensitivity in understanding the intricacies of gender as a category and of addressing the deeply embedded gender disparities in India. Simply speaking about women’s empowerment is not enough. Women will be empowered if the structural arrangements in society which are still steeped in patriarchal biases are dismantled. You may create all kind of systems for women outside their homes but if they cannot step out because of their domestic responsibilities the opportunities will go a begging. Pratibha Patil never attempted to step into these tricky domains. She was always politically correct – meaning she would not upset the status quo.
However, let me not digress. Pratibha Patil has proven that putting a woman in the hot seat is unlikely to change the fates of other women. Similarly, the argument that if you elect a tribal as president then the destiny of the tribals and backward classes would change is a fallacy. The argument lacks substance and is not in consonance with the idea of India where a President once elected must look after the welfare of all castes, creeds, tribes, religions etc. So the contention of Mr PA Sangma, former Lok Sabha Speaker that individuals from all categories, except tribals have been elected president and therefore this is the time to give tribals (meaning himself) a chance sounds rather parochial.
While anyone in this country has the right to want to be president of India and no specific qualifications are required, the fact remains that the aspirant has to be a loyalist of the ruling party. Everything else is secondary. So when Mr PA Sangma who is also the present MLA of Tura started the kite flying game for entering Rashtrapati Bhavan, many were surprised. Sangma belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the party supremo is Sharad Pawar. In the normal course of things, Pawar should have floated Purno Sangma’s name. But Pawar denied having knowledge about Sangma’s aspirations and stated with rare candour that the NCP would be supporting any candidate put up by the UPA. This clearly looks like the NCP is split down the middle and that there is the Pawar group in Maharashtra which is not in sync with the Purno group in Meghalaya or Manipur.
But this dichotomy aside, what is curious is that people in Meghalaya do not seem to have gone over the top about supporting Purno Sangma’s new born ambition. Even in Garo Hills from where Sangma hails, the responses to his aspirations are lukewarm. At a recent workshop cum training on writing, for journalists and college and university students in the city, Mumbai based trainer, Dr Aloke Thakore asked the participants how many support Sangma’s candidature as president. There was complete silence. He then asked for a show of hands. Still there was no show. Surprised, Thakore said this was something to write about. ‘How could young people in PA Sangma’s home state be so apathetic about his presidential drive?’ he wondered.
The reasons for this lukewarm response to Sangma’s ambitions are not far to seek. He did not start his campaign from his home state. On the contrary, the once politically perspicacious Sangma launched his campaign from Odisha and then went on to Tamilnadu to garner support. He used the tribal card to the hilt. But the same Sangma had argued at a different occasion that he is where he is because of merit and not because of any special favours. This is a volte-face that requires some explanation. Then a group of Christian leaders from the north east started a media campaign that the country should now have a Christian as president and who better than Purno to fit that bill. The media bought into this campaign and the metro media channels went hyper. First Agatha Sangma who is part of the UPA-2 government was interviewed by Arnab Goswami whether she would support “Papa” or the consensus UPA candidate. She diplomatically skirted the question and gave a somewhat feeble answer. Then another channel quizzed Sangma himself and asked him why he had to use the tribal card. On that show the sagacious Purno came across as ‘not so savvy.’ He berated the office of the president calling it a ‘rubber stamp’ position. Later he said that Pranab Dada (Pranab Mukherjee, who many believe to be the UPA candidate) was too intelligent to be sitting on that august chair. The implication is clear. For Purno Sangma a person with intellect would be wasted in Rashtrapati Bhavan and the president is but a nominal head which she/he is.
The anchor dug in his heels and asked Sangma what changes he has been able to bring to the Meghalaya landscape as an MP of several years and a Union Minister to boot. Sangma could not acquit himself on this count and we all know why. Tura, known as the elite Lok Sabha constituency which has produced union ministers many more times than Shillong has, continues to be in the boondocks. There is nothing to suggest that Tura even remotely mirrors Amethi the favoured constituency of the Nehru-Gandhi family. In recent times the situation in Tura has become worse. There is water scarcity; the roads are in a depressingly bad shape; electricity is a constant dampener and there are many other shortcomings. So much so, citizens have begun to voice their concerns that Garo Hills is slipping back into the dark ages. The situation is made worse by the presence of gun-toting mafia ostensibly called “militants” (because that is a more politically correct nomenclature) who live off the earnings of others. Extortion is rampant and insecurity threatens citizens from living a full life.
Many who this writer had spoken to, have expressed their fears that a person who cannot look after his own constituency is ill-suited to be the president of the country. Mr PA Sangma the Tura MLA spends most of his time in Delhi. At another interview Sangma said that former Lok Sabha Speakers should be allotted a residence in the national capital. This demand for a sinecure position surely indicates that the little man from Meghalaya who once wielded much clout in Delhi is inflicted by fatigued about having to serve a small MLA constituency of not more than 20,000 people.
No one grudges Sangma his place in the sun. After all he has earned it. But to hanker for something and then use the tribal or the religious card to get there is not very magnanimous. And you expect the President of India to be a person with a large heart; a person who can rise above ethnicity, race class, caste and religion. We Indians have not sunk so low as to support someone merely because he belongs to our ‘jati.’ Tribes are so called we love to bask in the shadow of one of our own who has made it big in life. I think it’s time we abandon these idiosyncrasies.