But the Crisis has Deepened and has Become More Entrenched (Part XIV)
Nobody for President
On 17th July 2017, India will elect a new President through a vote of the elected representatives. The two real choices are between Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar. Afraid of looking completely ignorant, I asked a few people who Kovind is. No-one knew of him and people only vaguely remembered Ms. Kumar.
Adults and juveniles have been arrested in different parts of India for celebrating Pakistan’s victory over India in a recently held cricket match. They have been charged with sedition, a charge that has serious legal ramifications and can potentially send these people to prison for life. With the British gone for 70 years, India’s laws and institutions have lost all mooring to their rational anchors. Photo credit: Amnesty India
India will get a complete nobody as its next President. Both candidates are from the Indian province of Bihar. If it were a country, Bihar with its 119 million inhabitants would be the 12th most populated in the world. With a GDP of USD 420 per capita, it would also be among the world’s ten poorest countries.
A scene from a slum in Patna, Bihar’s capital. Photo credit: Yuri Birukov
Kovind is from the “lower caste” and is the choice of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who would like to make up for recent atrocities against the “lower caste”. While he is a nobody with hardly any public credentials and a yes-man to the system, Kovind is sympathetic to the cause of Hindu fanatics and has their support.
Why pull a passionate street fighter and rabble-rouser out of the street and place him in a position where he might compete with Modi for visibility?
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