Missed opportunity

Sir, - The President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan's unhappiness about the absence of his sub-caste (Parava) in the Census Schedule and his assertion that he was being enumerated as a citizen and not as President of India, as reported in a section of the press, sound hollow and as a kind of double-speak for at least two reasons:

One, though Mr. Naryanan's SC background might have been one of the political considerations for making him the President of India, once he became President, he should have risen above casteist considerations, keeping in mind the fact that he is not the President of the SCs alone but of the whole nation of which the SCs no doubt account for about one-fifth. He can certainly exhort the nation to protect the SCs and other weaker sections and take measures for their well-being, and he has been doing this at every available and conceivable opportunity. It may make sense if the Paravas of Kerala, where they are listed as SCs, protest against the absence of their caste-name in the Census Schedule, but certainly not when the President of India does so; for as the head of a secular pluralist democracy he has to be edifying for ushering in the much needed secular ethos in the country for which elimination of caste by underplaying its relevance is very important.

Two, if the President was being enumerated as a citizen of India he should have set an example by insisting on his enumeration like any other citizen. That is, without the hype and hoop-la that go with Presidential ``acts''. Instead, he had it both ways. That is, as President and as citizen. Otherwise, what was the need for the Census Commissioner and Registrar General of India to be present (with hand-on-mouth humbleness!) for enumerating the President? Is the Census Commissioner present for the enumeration of other citizens? This pervasive discriminatory and slavish attitude of the higher echelon bureaucracy is an anathema on Indian democracy.

If the Census Department is perpetrating age-old prejudices, as it certainly does, it is mainly because of their tacit approval and encouragement by the high and mighty. This is equally applicable to the infirmities in the Census such as the exclusion of Muslim and Christian Dalits from the SC category. The nexus between politicians in power and the bureaucracy is, in some sense, lethal, anti-social, anti-secular, and anti-Constitution. The progressive President of India missed an important opportunity to set an example as an ideal President and ideal citizen, by not subjecting himself to be enumerated like any other citizen.

P. Radhakrishnan,

Chennai

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