Ahead of the 2022 Presidential election, ‘journalist’ Pritish Nandy today cast aspersions on India’s inclusivity and the integrity of the country’s electoral system. While a tribal woman is becoming the president of the country for the first time, he questioned whether a Muslim will become prime minister or president, implying it will never happen.
In a tweet on Sunday (July 17), he lamented about the supposed lack of diversity when it comes to the highest electoral office of the country.
“An Indian-origin woman is Vice-President of the US. An Indian-origin man has a shot at being Prime Minister of Britain. But will an Indian-born Muslim be Prime Minister or President of India ever again?” he inquired.
“Can you make 1 out of every 7 Indians ineligible for high political office?” Nandy further asked. From the very onset, the journalist did not spare any opportunity to limit political offices to ‘religious identity.’
Shifting goal posts out of political inconvenience
While he talked about the ‘Indian race’ in the case of Kamala Harris (US Vice-President) and Rishi Sunak (potential UK PM candidate), Pritish Nandy was quick to shift the goalpost to religion in the Indian context.
And he zeroed in on a religious group, which is proportionately the largest among all religious minorities in the country. Through his tweet, the ‘journalist’ also suggested that the interests of Muslims can be served only if there is a Muslim Prime Minister or President.
The same ecosystem had recently snubbed Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu by claiming that her tribal identity alone will not serve the interests of the ST community.
Pritish Nandy resorts to political tokenism
Pritish Nandy insinuated that there would ‘never’ be a Muslim Prime Minister or a President again, under the current political climate. This is a part of an attempt to create hysteria among the Muslim community that they will not find a political representation in Modi’s India.
Such well-thought-out aspersions effectively play into the narrative of ‘Muslims are under threat in the country,’ despite a plethora of evidence to the contrary.
Nonetheless, India has a history of being inclusive and accommodating of all religious communities and social groups. The incumbent Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, belongs to the OBC community while the current President Ram Nath Kovind belongs to the SC community.
Our upcoming President belongs to the ST community. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which is often demonised as averse to the Muslim interests, had given the country its most beloved President – APJ Abdul Kalam.
Not just the BJP, but even its predecessor Congress had appointed 2 Muslim Presidents – Zakir Hussain (1967-1969) and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974-1977), although the latter’s legacy is tainted for proclaiming ‘Emergency’ in 1975.
India also had a Sikh President Giani Zail Singh (1982-1987) and Sikh Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (2004-2014), however for left liberals, only minorities in India are Muslims. We should also not forget Muslim Vice-President Hamid Ansari (now under scanner for compromising India’s national security).
While Pritish Nandi praises USA and UK for racial diversity of their presidents and prime ministers, and complains about not having a Muslim PM in India, he conveniently forgets that none of those countries had a non-Christian head of the government or head of the state, despite being democratic countries for much longer then India.
Moving beyond social constructs
Political tokenism and social constructs have plagued this country for a long time. After 74 years of Independence, we cannot limit our political representatives to mere religious and caste identities.
While diversity and representation must be encouraged, meritocracy should also remain a determining factor. Pritish Nandy and his ilk will never appreciate such an ‘idea of India’ where tokenism becomes futile.
And his contentious tweet comes at a time when Draupadi Murmu is all set to win the Presidential elections. No wonder, Balasaheb Thackeray lamented about sending the ‘idiot’ journalist to Rajya Sabha.
