Contrary to popular impression, the next President of India is not yet Abdul Kalam. There is another candidate and there is to be a contest, however symbolic it may seem. Opposing the candidate of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is Lakshmi Sahgal, nominated by the Left Front as their candidate for the president. On July 15, the electoral college will have to choose between these two. The electoral college consists of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the legislative assemblies of the states, with votes being weighted through a formula involving the population of states.
Eighty-seven-year-old Lakshmi Sahgal has an impressive record. Trained as a doctor during the colonial era when women were seldom even sent to school (she received her medical degree in 1938 from the Madras Medical College), she established a successful practice in Singapore. But soon she was drawn into the anti-British struggle in Singapore and became active in the India Independence League. When Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, the Indian National Army (INA) was formed, largely by Indian Prisoners of War. In 1943, nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Singapore and called for a Women�s regiment and thus the Rani of Jhansi Regiment was formed under the leadership of Colonel Lakshmi.
The INA was ultimately unsuccessful and the British captured its personnel. However, with the end of the war and the increasingly strident anti-colonial struggle, an agitation for their release developed around the country. As Bipan Chandra et al point out in their outstanding India�s Struggle for Independence, the agitation was a landmark on many counts � the sheer intensity; the wide geographical reach and participation of diverse social groups and political parties; and the impact it had on sections that traditionally supported the British. Most notable among these impacts was the revolt by the ratings of the Royal Indian Navy in 1946. Lakshmi Sahgal was active in campaigning for the release and rehabilitation of imprisoned INA personnel and mobilizing people against colonial rule.
After independence, Lakshmi Sahgal settled in Kanpur and started medical work, especially among refugees from Partition. By the early 1970s, she also became active in Left politics, first in the trade union movement and then in the women�s movement. It is quite apt that she is to be the first woman candidate for the post of President of India.
There is, of course, practically no likelihood of her actually winning the contest. With the ruling BJP proposing Kalam as their presidential candidate and the largest opposition party, the Congress, endorsing the same, it is an unequal contest. But the stakes in the choice of the President this time around are so high that it is vital that the candidature of Kalam be challenged.
Symbolic contests have their values. Their chief purpose is to air issues that are not mentioned otherwise in the mainstream debate, dominated as it is by elite consensus. An example is the candidature of Ralph Nader in the 2000 US elections. The US political system is completely controlled by the Republican and Democratic parties. Since both these parties look to financial support from large corporations, they end up representing their interests against those of common people. Through Nader�s candidacy, the Green Party could pose awkward questions and offer different perspectives. In an odd sense, therefore, it is good that the oppositional candidate comes from the Left rather than the Congress. While the Congress claims to be different from the BJP and flouts its secular credentials, it is quite similar to the BJP in its support for militarisation and economic liberalisation, both espoused by the elite. Indeed, the Congress spokesperson was quick to point out that the Congress put Kalam in charge of the missile programme, just as the Congress took credit for starting the nuclear programme at the time of the 1998 Pokharan test.
Over the past decade the adoption of structural adjustment and reforms programme has accelerated the contradictions in the Indian political economy. Economic policy has come to mean a kind of fundamentalist belief in market solutions ignoring the real impacts on people�s lives, especially those at the margins. The emphasis has been on the growth of consumer products for the rich, including the rural rich, while a large fraction of the population lives below the poverty line.
When asked about poverty, the typical answer offered by those in favour of such a paradigm has been to emphasise technology � computer software, biotechnology, nuclear energy and so on. Such a solution entirely misses out on how science and technology impact on development and the crucial role played by social forces in this process. Lakshmi Sahgal�s emphasis on equity and social and economic justice during her campaign so far, therefore, comes as a breath of fresh air.
What is, of course, even more dangerous has been the increasing militaristic turn in the national political discourse. To be sure, this is matched by similar rhetoric elsewhere, whether in Pakistan or Nepal or the United States. But as Mahatma Gandhi was fond of remarking, an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
The emphasis on militarism and playing up the confrontation with Pakistan has allowed the BJP and other parties to divert attention from real issues that impact people�s lives, for example, the pogrom in Gujarat and stoking up communal passions. In contrast, Lakshmi Sahgal is unequivocal in stating that the �biggest threat to India is communalism and war-mongering� and expressing her commitment to the Constitution and its vision of a secular democratic republic.
The Presidential contest and Lakshmi Sahgal�s candidacy is part of a battle for the soul of India. May victory be on the side of peace and justice.
