N-E in focus with Purno

NISHIT DHOLABHAI

New Delhi, June 23: Presidential candidate P.A. Sangma may not fetch enough votes from the Northeast but the region is willy-nilly drawn into the national political discourse.

The tribal card, which Sangma used to plunge into the presidential race against finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, is seemingly a paradox unfolding. Sushma Swaraj may have termed Sangma as a tall leader from the Northeast but it is simple arithmetic how he would fare in the eight northeastern states, seven of which are Congress-led or pro-UPA. The only exception being Nagaland where chief minister Neiphiu Rio is a close friend of Sangma. Here too, Rio's Naga People's Front technically supports the UPA government in Parliament. Left-ruled Tripura will give its support to the Congress candidate following the CPM party line.

However, as Sangma played the tribal card to seek support for his candidature he has brought the issue of representation of tribals from Northeast into the mainstream political discourse. Not only will the BJP and former NDA partners get drawn into the debate as the campaign picks up, the Congress, too, may not remain untouched by the emotive northeastern flavour. Sangma will visit Northeast early next month, sources said.

Sangma's name was in a list of others like R.S. Mooshahary, the Meghalaya governor, but it was the NCP leader who was the most eager. Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi even took a dig at the fellow northeastern leader to point out that Sangma was perhaps the first presidential candidate to propose his own name.

And here lies the irony. The NCP leader had to leave his party and is even facing criticism for playing the tribal card. However, he has managed to inject the idea of constitutional heads from the region in political parties like the Congress.

"The Northeast needs political space. We are even thinking of having an IPL team. That's what we need," says former Lok Sabha MP, Omak Apang, the son of former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang.

The last time that anyone contested the presidential polls from the Northeast was late Prof. G.G. Swell from Meghalaya. Before that, it was Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in 1974 from Assam, who went on to become President.

Swell, a deputy Speaker in Lok Sabha, had lost to Shankar Dayal Sharma in 1992. Sharma had polled 6,75,864 while Swell got 3,46,485 but the latter was way ahead of Ram Jethmalani and Kaka Joginder Singh aka Dharti-Pakad who had received less than 4,000 votes put together.

As he prepares for the campaign, Sangma will face tough questions while the numbers stack up against him. Former Nagaland chief minister S.C. Jamir feels the former Lok Sabha Speaker should not have used the tribal card when he knew he would lose.

"As a tribal leader, one should be honest in his assessment and what he is fighting for," Jamir said over phone from Dimapur about the former "humble" schoolteacher. Sangma had taught at the Don Bosco school in Guwahati.

Jamir, though, has a reason to thank Sangma. It is because of Sangma raising the tribal card that Jamir's name is in speculation for vice-presidency. "I have not asked anyone, no one has asked me. (But) I will stand by what the high command says as a loyal soldier of the Congress," said Jamir.

Young political leaders from the Northeast are eager to see the region getting more political space.

Omak could not help peeping out of his Congress robes to concede that the Congress "may have lost an opportunity" to get someone from the Northeast by not supporting Sangma. Apang quickly added a caveat though. "Sangma, of course, comes from a lineage but his candidature has brought the Northeast into focus and Sangma's candidature has done that," said Omak.

The former NCP leader could not agree more to this idea. After all, his daughter Agatha is a minister in the UPA government, son James is an MLA and the other son, Conrad, the leader of Opposition in the Meghalaya Assembly. As he contests the presidency, there is a beeline of television channel crew outside Agatha's Aurangzeb Road official residence. As the reporters try to speak to Agatha who remains a minister, staffers make it clear she is not meeting anyone these days lest a statement embarrass her father.

Even apolitical observers feel that Sangma's candidature is generating a cultural and political discourse. It is food for thought for people like restaurateur S.K. Bezbaruah who knew Sangma in his early days of politics. Bezbaruah thinks Sangma portrayed himself as a tribal leader while being associated with national politics. "He should not have (done that). He had a different status, he was a Lok Sabha Speaker," said Bezbaruah who owns restaurants in Delhi and Assam.

"The Congress should not have outright rejected him. It could have given him some respect," says Bezbaruah, adding that a representative from the region may not find support as governments in the region have to survive on support from the Centre.