NO EXCITEMENT OVER ELECTION Of NEw PRESIdENT
Tomorrow the Presidential race between two Dalit candidates will end. A total of 776 Members of Parliament from both the Houses and 4,120 MLAs would cast their secret vote. But the writing on the wall is absolutely clear, as the NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind (71) is far ahead of his rival of the “united opposition”, Meira Kumar (72), Congress leader and India’s first woman Lok Sabha Speaker. Kovind is a former two-time BJP Rajya Sabha member. Meira’s father was a wellknown Dalit icon, Babu Jagjivan Ram, who was the Deputy Prime Minister in the Janata government. She has lived a highly comfortable and sophisticated life. She studied in best missionary schools and top colleges, worked as an IAS officer and served as a diplomat in many diplomatic missions abroad, before joining politics. In comparison, Kovind is a low-profile BJP leader, who practised as a lawyer in the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court, before joining politics. At one time, he lived in a rented accommodation in an unauthorised colony in his native place, Kanpur. The Sunday Guardian noticed that the excitement was only among the politicians despite the fact that the outcome is known to everyone. We scanned letters sent by readers to different newspapers to fathom the common man’s interest. “Hypocrisy on display!” a reader, Mumukshu K. Thakur from Chamba wrote in a letter to the editor of a northern state newspaper. “A Dalit President? What hypocrisy is on display by all the political parties. Leaving aside raising slogans in favour of Dalits and all other neglected and exploited sections of the society, which party has done anything substantial and sufficient for the cause of Dalit masses?” he asks. Another reader, Shadi Lal, says that the Presidential election has been reduced to almost a panchayat poll, where nominees, accompanied by a coterie of ministers in one case and opposition leaders in another have to undertake election campaigns all across the country when the outcome is clear to one and all. “Why spend so much money and energy in such pursuits? It is wasteful expenditure, to say the least.” Kovind’s campaigners have maintained that he is softspoken and low-profile while “Meira is an elite”