Why couldn’t the BJP put up a better presidential candidate?

When a political party, a ruling party to be precise, puts up a candidate for the highest office in the country, what does it consider? The Bharatiya Janata Party, judging by statements made by its leaders, considered only the caste of Ram Nath Kovind while putting him up as NDA’s nominee for the presidential election, 2017.

Ram Nath Kovind, in fact, was a name unknown to most Dalits till his name was announced. Indeed, a Dalit activist confessed as much, saying that although he was active for quarter of a century, he first heard of Kovind only when he was named the Governor of Bihar two years ago. Not surprisingly, the first reaction of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after BJP named Kovind as its candidate on June 19 was: “Who is he?”

While the Saffron brigade is drumming up support for Ram Nath Kovind on the basis of his Dalit identity, and trying very hard to suggest that the candidate of the combined Opposition, by virtue of having married a non-Dalit, is somewhat a lesser dalit, Meira Kumar does not need just her caste identity to spruce up her profile.

As a presidential candidate, she certainly is a far more acceptable candidate than Kovind. A former Indian Foreign Service officer with international exposure, she has been a Member of the Lok Sabha from both UP and Bihar, has served as a Union Minister and was the first woman Speaker of the Lower House. Besides, there is not a whiff of controversy surrounding her.

When KR Narayanan was nominated in 1997 as the presidential candidate, he did not have just one qualification to recommend his name that he was a Dalit. He had been a journalist, academic, diplomat, ambassador to China and a Union Minister. Even if he had not been a Dalit, he was an excellent choice, indeed the best possible person in the country for the presidential office.

Similarly, APJ Abdul Kalam, who succeeded him, was not just a Muslim. He was among India’s foremost scientists. Even PA Sangma, NDA’s candidate against Pranab Mukherjee in 2012, was not selected just on the basis of the fact that he was the first person from any tribal community to throw his hat into the ring. No doubt he hailed from a Scheduled Tribe from the Northeast, but he was not just that.

He had served as the Chief Minister of Meghalaya and also in the Union Cabinet before serving as Speaker of the Lok Sabha. If Manmohan Singh was chosen by the Congress for the post of Prime Minister in 2004, his religion could not have been the only criterion. The party might have taken into account his Sikh identity to assuage the hurt feelings of Sikhs, especially after the 1984 massacre in Delhi and elsewhere, but that was not the only reason for entrusting him with this responsibility.

The Congress never projected him as son of a homeless refugee from across the border who had to face enormous hardship in those turbulent days following Partition. Instead, he was chosen for the post of PM because of his own record as an academic, bureaucrat, Governor of Reserve Bank of India and India’s most remembered Union Finance Minister.

As the President represents the country, he is expected to be someone with more than one distinction. The BJP could have certainly fielded a much better presidential candidate and a better Dalit face.