Women of substance

Julio Ribeiro

The BJP is way ahead of the Congress and other Opposition parties when it comes to political manoeuvrings! Its choice of Droupadi Murmu, an Adivasi, a self-made woman from the Santhali tribe in Uparbeda village of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, left the Opposition red-faced! Many Opposition sparties that had endorsed Yashwant Sinha for the honour developed second thoughts.

Candidates for top posts should not forget that they have a responsibility to the Constitution and the people. Any attempt to curb people’s rights should meet with disapproval or, at least, wise words of advice.

The Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee, the Shiv Sena faction of Uddhav Thackeray and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha of Shibu Soren either came out openly for Murmu, or, as in Mamata’s case, showed signs of faltering. By nominating a tribal woman who could be described as a ‘people’s candidate’, the BJP cut the ground under the Opposition’s feet.

I am particularly unhappy with the manner in which ‘an officer and a gentleman’, a description that fits Yashwant Sinha, was left abandoned. Can you ask a good man to be a ‘consensus candidate’, and then abandon him even before he gets started? It is highly unethical even if the excuse is that the dictates of politics have induced this ‘under the belt’ punch.

All those who believe in the equality of sexes, like I do, will admit that person-to-person, Sinha was far superior to Murmu as a presidential prospect. He is highly intelligent, knowledgeable, experienced in administration and statecraft, and most of all, fair-minded and just in his dealings. He was a faithful acolyte of that great statesman, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who, like him, was fair-minded and just and had no bias against the minorities. Vajpayee’s ‘Hindutva’ did not entail second-class status for them. And it certainly did not include elimination!

Murmu has had a cakewalk. Sinha knew he was going to lose. Yet, he continued to fight. I salute him for it.

The people of India should welcome an Adivasi President as an acknowledgement that the Adivasis were here on this hallowed land before any of us, I dare say, even before the Dravidians. Naturally, she will be indebted to the party that had the numbers to propel her to this high office. But she must not forget that she also has a responsibility to the Constitution and the people of the country. Any attempt to curb people’s rights of movement, free speech and equal opportunities should meet with disapproval or, at least, wise words of advice. I sincerely hope and pray that she fails not!

Murmu should use her exalted position to ensure the tribal rights of the Adivasis. She has done so in her role of the Governor of Jharkhand. The Jesuit priest, Fr Stan Swamy, was fighting for just that. Probably because his activities militated against ‘development’, he was picked on for being a hindrance. Recently, Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, stated that the country would develop only after the coal and other natural resources of the country were fully exploited.

Development is a natural concern of the government, but it has to be formulated within the legal rights of the Adivasis, codified by law. If those rights are trampled on and the coal and minerals are mined without the consent and cooperation of the Adivasis, who have been living on the usufruct of such forest land for millennia, the incoming President should raise the issue and protest. Her reservations should be made known to the public for the sake of transparency in governance.

Having burnt its fingers in the matter of choosing its nominee for President, the Opposition waited for the BJP to make the first move in announcing its vice-presidential candidate. The ruling party chose a party man whose track record of quarrels as the Governor of West Bengal with CM Mamata Banerjee is known to the public. Jagdeep Dhankhar, a Jat from the Hindi belt, was a loyal follower of the regime that rules the Centre. A Vice-President presides over the Rajya Sabha in the role that an elected Speaker plays in the Lok Sabha. Though the Vice-President has many other duties to perform, this is the most important part of his job. So it is not as ornamental as people think. She or he can make quite a difference to governance if she or he just toes the government’s line. That is its importance. The Modi administration has a reliable hand in Dhankhar.

Margaret Alva, the Opposition candidate, a Christian, is from Karnataka. She, like Dhankhar, had cut her teeth in politics before becoming the Governor of Uttarakhand. I had met her a few times during my service days and I have respect for her sense of fairness. When the Shah Bano case was reversed by Rajiv Gandhi through legislation, she was very upset. As a loyal soldier, she kept her opinion to herself, but those who knew her more intimately were aware of her discomfort.

I knew Violet Alva, her mother-in-law, better than I knew Margaret, since she and her husband, Joachim, were based in Mumbai at one stage of their career. She was a former Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha herself. I remember that one of Violet’s sons (not Margaret’s husband) had joined the far left. Mrs Alva Senior told me she was not surprised because she, too, felt that the poor and the dispossessed were not being given a fair deal. Their condition should shock the conscience of all right-thinking Indians, said she. She was a patient of my brother-in-law, Dr Ivan Pinto, a cardiologist, and that was how I came to know her.

In the coming contest, Margaret will be the underdog, but I do hope that for the sake of this country, she succeeds. A woman, a Christian from the South, and a fair referee! It is the latter quality that should attract the voter’s attention. Will it?

#Droupadi Murmu