Is caste important or qualification for deciding nominee for highest office of the land….!

Is caste important or qualification for deciding nominee for highest office of the land….!

(Sunil Negi, President, Uttarakhand journalists Forum)
Caste combination in politics is nothing new. It has been happening in politics since we attained independence. The highly revered constitutional maker Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar was the one who took the cudgels of lifting above our dalit brothers n sisters from the shackles of incessant exploitation of centuries by way of granting them better constitutional opportunities in education, jobs n participation to govern with the sole objective to finally end reservation in the decades to come. Thanks to him for being genuinely concerned for the overall developments of the dalits of our country who in fact during the last seven decades prospered tremendously economically educationally, socially, culturally n industrially etc. Today they are shining in every sphere of the country n making India proud of their significant contribution.

Dr. Ambedkar has unambiguosly said that reservation for the dalits is a constitution tool to enable them equate themselves with other progressive forward castes in the coming future n that it should be slowly n steadily lessened after every decade depending on the improvement in the scio economic lot of the community. But what happened, even after the lapse of almost 68 years since acheiving independence our politicians n political parties have made it a political tool to exploit votes than to actually improve the lot of the dalits. Its not that the community has not prospered or developed manifold or multi dimensionally but unfortunately the exploitation of the dalits at the lowest ebb are still being exploited by the creamy layers amongst their own community who go on seeking repeated benefits in jobs, education, politics n other form of luxurious consumption. The rich n affluent amongst the Dalits are becoming more n more prosperous while those living in rural India n bereft of the actual benefit of the reservation policy are still the exploited. The prosperous n enlightened dalits rule the roost while those at yhe powest ebb still suffer badly even after 7 decades of Independence from the colonial rule.

Now take the case of the presidential election scheduled for 17th july. The fight is beyween the two Dalits, Ram Nath Kovind of BJP lead NDA n higly affluent n rich Meera Kumar of Congress led UPA, a constitution of 17 anti BJP parties. The caste factor has gained momentum in indian politics that has not even kept the highest office of the land aloof from this narrown squeezd though process of our politicians and political parties. The Congress Party which ruled india for about sixty odd years out of 67 since india freed itself from the neo colonial clutches primarily based its politics n political gains on reservation n minority appeasement n the BJP having been termed as the party of the Hindus n the forward caste like Brahmins n banias have been banking on anti minority stance giving little credence to the politics of reservation except for the fact that it has slowly n slowly changed its preferences n followed the Congress’s way of thinking by lateron banking heavily on the dalit votes n after Narendra Modi’s assuming the Prime ministership the BJP has strategically with full force tried to intrude into the Dalit vote bank resulting in its massive victories in the states like Madhya pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra n UP the main citadels of the Dalit n backward vote banks even killing the political prospects of the hardcore caste leaders like Mayawati n Mulayam Singh yadav, whose entire political future rests on the support base of Dalits, Yadavs n the minorities. The selection of the former Haryana governor n Dalit Ram Nath Kovind by Narendra Modi who is a sure sort win having sure to secure about 76% votes against UPAs Meera Kumar who also happens to be Dalit speaks of the fact that even the high office of the president of India is not devoid of caste considerations. While on the one hand India boasts of being a Super power in the making, making high strides in almost every field and equating itself with highly developed countries of the world in nuclear n missile technologies n other revolutionary sceintific n defance developments deciding the nominees of the highest office of the land on narrow caste considerations than their capability n high educational backgrounds is definitely a subject of debate amongst 125 crores indians. However, the people of country are also questioning that if caste or community considerations really n truly amount to improving or enhancing the lot of the people of those particular castes n communities then why is it that the socio- economic lot of the muslims n dalits not improved till date despite India having been freed 69 years ago n having four honourable presidents from these communities THREE MUSLIMS Dr. Zakir Hussain, Sir Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam n a DALIT Dr. K. R Narayanan. What’s your take friends?