Let’s face it. Purno Agitok Sangma, who has proposed his own name for the President’s post and sought the support of all political parties, is the tallest leader from India’s tribal-Christian community. Mr Sangma put forward his claim on identity basis, and rightly so, as so far there have been many upper caste presidents, three Muslim presidents, one Sikh president, one dalit president and one woman president.

But there has not yet been one from the tribal community or from amongst the Christians. Mr Sangma combines in himself both these backgrounds and he’s an able leader to boot.
Mr Sangma, you will recall, was one of the best Speakers of the Lok Sabha, perhaps the youngest one too, when he was elected in 1996. Mr Sangma maintained neutrality better than any other Speaker before him. Now also, as a matter of propriety, he resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) once he found that the party would not support him.
Years ago, Mr Sangma left the Congress on only one issue — that of Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin — which in my view was a political mistake. However, his political, personal and family records are remarkably good. So when Mr Sangma said that he was keen to stand for the post of the President, both the Congress and the NCP should have seriously thought about supporting him. I would say, Mr Sangma deserves that position more than Pranab Mukherjee because he’s not just a politician but also a scholar in his own right. Also, more than Bengal, the Northeast craves to see its son or daughter in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Mr Mukherjee, a Bengali brahmin, part of the bhadralok brahminic culture, is a politician to the core. His services to his village, constituency and Bengal are hardly noteworthy.
The argument that identity should not be an issue in presidential election does not hold water. Last time, when Pratibha Patil was made the President, she was hailed as the first woman President. When K.R. Narayanan became President, dalit identity issue was in the public domain. So what is wrong if Mr Sangma talks about tribal representation in Rashtrapati Bhavan?
Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik took the initiative and supported Mr Sangma’s nomination for the President’s post on the ground that as a tribal-Christian, he deserved it; Mr Patnaik knew, of course, that he will be able to encash this support in the shape of votes from the tribal and Christian communities. J. Jayalalithaa is supporting Mr Sangma for the same reason.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s last-minute decision to support Mr Sangma is a clever move; it did so without putting a proposal before the Congress and the UPA that Mr Sangma could be their choice for the post of the vice-president if a consensus is arrived on Mr Mukherjee being the President.
The BJP knows pretty well that Mr Sangma does not have enough backing to make it to Raisina Hill. It also knows that Mr Sangma will become an untouchable for many parties as he is standing for the president’s post as a BJP-backed candidate. Even before the BJP took a decision to support him, Mr Sangma resigned from the NCP; he is unlikely to rejoin that party after the presidential elections. In all likelihood, his political supporters in the Northeast will break away from the NCP before the 2014 elections and win some seats. The only option before them then will be to join the NDA.
The BJP is in need of a credible Christian face after the total immobilisation of George Fernandes. Though the BJP is not favourably disposed towards the Christians, it wants at least one credible Christian face in its camp. The BJP thinks Mr Sangma can fill the vacuum created by Mr Fernandes in the NDA, and will be a better face for it to project, because he represents the north-eastern Catholic Christian community, which is sizeable. As of now, the BJP does not have any support base there.
When the BJP was in power in Delhi and it proposed a ban on cow slaughter, it was Mr Sangma who said that if this happened, the Northeast would not remain within India because “beef is what we cannot avoid”. As a result, the BJP dropped its proposal. Mr Sangma’s personality, and his words, will carry a lot of weight in future as well.
This is where Mrs Gandhi and the UPA seem to have erred. It would appear that they haven’t given due thought to the danger of losing Mr Sangma to the BJP camp. Now that the deed is done, what’s the way out? There’s one way: offer him vice-presidentship. Mr Sangma’s contest has raised tribal and Christian aspirations higher than what they were so far. It’s good for the nation that a leader like Mr Sangma emerged from the Northeast’s tribal-Christian community, so that the region and those communities begin to feel they have a stake in this country’s future. The problems in the Northeast are no less acute than the problems we have had in Punjab (Khalistan), or still have in Kashmir. After Manmohan Singh became Prime Minister, the Sikh psyche changed and no amount of funding from abroad will give a fresh lease of life to the Khalistan movement in the near future.
Identity matters in this country. If the endeavour is to strengthen the nation’s unity, a pre-requisite to prosperity, we would do well to address the identity problem in all seriousness. If we see the emergence of a capable and credible leadership from the historically oppressed and exploited communities, like the tribals, as a problem, our attitude is a bigger problem. With such an attitude, we cannot build an inclusive India.
Mr Sangma has done a service to the nation by presenting himself for the exalted post of President. The Congress leadership would do well to remember that he was first and foremost a Congressman, a politician committed to the unity and integrity of this country, and one who is both well-equipped and duty-bound to uphold the secular credentials of this nation. No doubt, the Congress has to its credit a leadership structure which is all-inclusive; unlike its main rival, the BJP. Yet, rather than resting on its laurels, it should keep building on its strengths. There’s more to do. The Congress needs to address the identity issue more carefully, if only to make sure that more and more regional parties and some of their capable leaders do not create problems for it or the nation in future, either on their own or by joining hands with, say, the BJP.
By the looks of it, Mr Sangma will be defeated in this poll, but the nation must make sure he is not humiliated. If that humiliation is seen as a tribal and Christian humiliation, chances are that these sizeable sections will get even alienated more from the social and political mainstreams. Alternatively, if Mr Sangma and some tribals and Christians see the BJP as a better option than the Congress and the Communists, the loss would be bigger for the Congress.
Unfortunately for the Communists, they are less imaginative than the BJP. One party (the CPM) is keen on voting for a Bengali bhadralok and another (CPI) is supporting him by abstaining from the voting. They think that the SC/ST segments are still not intelligent enough to understand the Communist leaderships’ mindset, one that is given to more talk and less action when it comes to the crunch with regard to the disadvantaged sections of the society.
However, Mr Sangma is too precious — a national, secular and democratic institution by himself — to be handed over to the BJP on a platter. If he’s put in the vice-president’s seat, that will serve the nation’s interests better than him being in the BJP camp.