Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Chucrh and the election of a new President for India


Church and choosing the new President of India
JOHN DAYAL
Political pundits, and the street soothsayers, are sure that Purno Sangma, former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, former Union Minister, former Chief minister of Meghalaya and currently a member of the Nationalist Congress Party, is not going to be elected the next President of the Republic of India.
And yet, at least two major church organisations in the country have backed Sangma as their choice of the first Christian and the first Tribal Head of State of the 62 year old Republic. And many others are taken up by the baby faced devout Catholic famously remembered as much for the drinks he serves at his residence as for carrying the statue of Infant Jesus on his head in his parish procession.
Purno  has sought high office all along after he found himself as the Congress Party’s choice of Speaker of the Lok Sabha. In that office, he earned brownie points for presenting a jovial face in a house where rustic humour and not urbane wit was the norm, and confrontations, then as now, often ended up in vicious mayhem in what is called the “well” of the House. But he remained a political lightweight despite his family’s rule in the tiny northeast state he calls home. And therefore he was given no credence when he thought he could become prime minister or president.
In fact he found himself in the political boondocks when he targeted Sonia Gandhi for her Italian birth at the dawn of United Progress Alliance –I [UPA-I],  exiting the Congress saying it would be a national shame if Gandhi were ever to be made Prime Minister.  He joined Sharad Pawar in forming the Nationalist Congress Party, but has not been a major figure till he suddenly hit the headlines as the presidential nominee of Orissa’s  chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha. Not surprisingly, Sharad Pawar has disowned him and said he will back whosoever Sonia Gandhi chooses. The Opposition National Democratic Alliance of the BJP of course will not have anything to do with him either.
So why did a section of the Christian community back him so vociferously? The roots lie in the community’s  political naiveté. Barring a discussion in the Andhra organisation of all local churches, there has not been a debate even at the diocesan level on this important issue. Are we  saying we have not trust in Rashtrapati Bhawan hopefuls Pranab Mukherkee, Manmohan Singh, former Bengal Governor Gopal Gandhi, and current Vice President Ansari? Do we think only a person of our community can safeguard our interests?
Perhaps it would have been better for churches, educators, social scientists and activists from the clergy and laity to have come together and discussed the issue and then made a statement giving not names of individuals but the qualities the community looked for in Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, irrespective of their religious identity.
The community could have listed qualities and commitments they sought : A distinguished academic and career record; a sensitivity towards issues of the poor, the Tribals, the backward and the marginalised, towards Dalits in general and Dalit Christians in particular; and no whisper of any sectarian or communal bigotry.
This would rule out the Facebook and Twitter candidates – celebrities  such as Shah Rukh Khan, Amir Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, the two women, including the one who is a Christian, who sent those missiles and rockets up -- a la President Kalam – and uban middle class icons Hazare, Kiran Bedi and Agnivesh, Navin Chawla who wrote a book on Mother Teresa, and officials from the civil and defence services.
The community would have to apply the same criteria of excellence even for a Christian candidate. One former minister said in many public meetings that they had won not on the Christian vote in their constituencies but because of the vote of the Hindus, and were therefore, could not be asked to focus on the Christian community.
This argument explains why the Christian representatives in Parliament have not succeeded in winning battles for the political issues pertaining to the community --so apparent in the Right to Education Act, the Article 341 (iii) issue relating to the Scheduled Caste rights of Dalit Christians, and scores of other issues that emerge from Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal, Rajasthan, Karnataka and so on. The two Anglo Indian MPs in the Lok Sabha are not there as representatives of the microscopic Anglo Indian community.
There are, of course,  many Christian names to consider, possibly for the Vice President’s post. Foremost among them, I would say, is Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva who has kept her political record clean, has practiced her faith openly, and has a strong political lineage. She could perhaps also reach out to the vote banks of women party heads such as Mamta, Mayawati and Jayalalitha with whom she has personal rapport. Former Orissa governor and Indian Administrative Service retired  officer MM Rajendran's name has been also suggested, though he has been politically inactive for a very long time and has therefore slipped off the political radar. Governor Jamir from Nagaland has also been shortlisted by some Christian organisations. There are several others too. All political lightweights.
If the community really wants a Christian President, it must be prepared for heart-break, now and possibly for many years to come. Even if a Christian were to be elected in some miracle. once in office, he or she would not be able to address our issues openly, tied as he or she would be in protocol and the structure of the government. Even if he or she were to reject a Bill, for instance if a future government were to bring about a national bill against conversions in India [several states have this law], at best she may end it back for reconsideration by the government, but if it cam back a second time, the President would have no role in it becoming the law of the land.
But one fears it is much too late this time. The community nationally is politically absolutely not really relevant, not enough to even have a Christian name in the serious political discourse preceding the Presidential elections.
The RSS in the current issue of its mouthpiece Organiser and Panchjanya charges Christians, specially Catholics, of being the caucus around Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and her sword arm in governance, so to say. They even identify Jews with Christian or Biblical names to be part of this lobby.
 What we actually need is larger Christian participation in the grass roots political systems of India, from the Panchayat upwards, and a larger participation in the civil services. Our voice must be heard at all levels, instead of expecting a Christian minister or MP or MLA waving the magic wand. The President of India does not have this magic wand as he or she remains a figurehead, the central figure in set-piece national functions doing the bidding of the Council of Ministers, which of course is chosen by the political party or parties in power.
[These are my personal views and do not necessarily reflect the discourse in the All India Christian Council and the All India Catholic Union, and any other organisation I am a member of in the Church and the Government.]