Presidential candidate PA Sangma made a tactless comment at Ahmedabad that India should have a President, who is not blind, dumb and deaf. He followed that statement with another which said that India should have a thinking and a functional President. These remarks could not have come at a more inopportune moment. This country has only just woken up to the rights of people with disabilities. According to the 2001 census there are 21 million people with disabilities in India. This makes up about 2.13 % of the population. But this figure has been hotly contested. The next head count that began in February 2011 is yet to be completed. Those involved in the sector believe that numbers could be anywhere between 2 to 10 % of the population. To be dismissive if not outrightly rude and insulting to such a huge percentage of the population suggests that PA Sangma is not adequately sensitized to the issue of disability in India. Can such a person occupy the highest post in the country?
As someone with a long innings in politics, Sangma should have been more discreet in his comments at all times. Now, the networks of people with disabilities have taken his statement at face value. They have demanded that he apologize. Some have even stated that a man with no respect for people with disabilities has nor right to become President of India. We are unsure what prompted Sangma to make such an insensitive statement but it is one that could be a shot in the leg instead of the arm. It has the potential to cripple his campaign.
In the past a presidential candidate did not have to traverse the length and breadth of the country to woo the members of the electoral college. There was dignity in the process even if the ruling party usually pushed its own candidate instead of working at a consensus. This time it is different. The Sangma camp is sucked into the rigmarole created by the inveterate Subramaniam Swamy, a brilliant but litigious lawyer with a penchant for court cases against political rivals. This time several objections have been raised against Pranab Mukherjee about holding offices of profit after filing his nomination for the presidential election. Mukherjee says he resigned from all posts with pecuniary benefits. All this nit-picking however has turned the campaign into an ugly affair. Whether Sangma wins or loses, the process has left behind a trail of malice.