Opposition for Meira Kumar

NOTWITHSTANDING Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s defection from the Opposition ranks on the forthcoming Presidential election, the non-BJP parties have declared that they are not prepared to give the BJP nominee, Governor Ram Nath Kovind, an easy walk-over. By opting for a Dalit candidate, the street-smart BJP high command had confronted the Opposition with a Hobson’s choice; by plumping for Meira Kumar, the former Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet minister, the Opposition has come up with a spirited challenge and a worthy challenger. A Dalit activist from the RSS stable versus a Dalit woman, with a decidedly superior profile of public service and political experience. Ms Meira Kumar represents the old order, with links to the Independence movement; Mr Kovind is a mascot for the new political dispensation, the post-freedom struggle generation. 

The outcome of the Meira Kumar versus Ram Nath Kovind contest can be predicted — the BJP’s energetic and resourceful political managers will ensure a comfortable win for their man. Still, a Presidential contest had become unavoidable: the secular and progressives forces feel duty-bound, as they should, to do their very best to prevent the accession of an RSS man to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Win or lose, the Opposition could not possibly be expected not to pick up the obvious ideological and political gauntlet thrown at them by the ruling establishment. 

The President of India is not a political office but it is not entirely without its political significance. The Constitution casts on the President — and, on the President alone — the responsibility to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution. To the extent very many people in the country believe that the aims and objectives of the RSS are at variance with the constitutional values, they may feel less than sanguine about a President, with an RSS pedigree, in Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Meira Kumar-Kovind contest is an occasion to re-emphasise the role and responsibility of the President, independent of his/her erstwhile political affiliations or ideological indoctrination. The ruling party as well as the Opposition owes the nation a dignified contest — and the Republic a dignified Head.