Purno Sangma is perfectly justified in asking why a tribal can’t make for a suitable presidential candidate. Any citizen of the country, irrespective of his religious, caste, gender or ethnic identity, should be free to contest the election. But to claim the post solely, or largely, on the strength of one’s “special” identity would be patently incorrect. We have had stalwarts like Rajendra Prasad, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Husain and Shanker Dayal Sharma as presidents of the country. And it’s worth noting that they did not hold the office on the basis of any special identity. The unacceptable criteria of caste and religion are an import of the years when there was a complete debasement of the entire political spectrum in the country. And today the real need to elect a capable person who is intellectually upright, ethically sound and personally courageous is being conveniently overlooked. Quite inevitably, we have to cope with rubber-stamp presidents or people who take pride in being the factotums of the political power of the times.
G R Saha Kolkata
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