Bangalore: That President K.R. Narayanan is an Untouchable is a fact. And that he is treated as an Untouchable by the ruling upper castes inside India even after he became the President is also a fact.
If both are facts then why the same rulers should be so upset and demand apology from three prestigious French dailies for stating this fact?
The Hindu (April 24, 2000) said: Three French papers, Le Figaro, Le Monde and France Soir, carried the dispatches describing the President as an “Untouchable” and dealing with his humble beginnings. The writings lacked grace and, in some ways, were factually incorrect. Here is a sample of a story by Le Figaro on the day Mr. Narayanan was to meet his French counterpart: “A rare event today in the Elysee protocol: Chirac will shake hands with an Untouchable, the President of India”. Some balancing words followed, but did not quite mitigate the damage – “However Kocheril Narayanan can feel at ease: another famous untouchable, a prophet of the emancipation of the “lower castes”, had the same motto, “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”. After having taught English literature, he studied at the London School of Economics. Then went on to choose diplomacy. Another para: “Son of a poor family of Kerala on the southwestern coast, he had to walk miles to go to school. He thus moved up from the fisherman caste, the Pravans, to rise to the top of the largest democracy”, said the Hindu.
Apartheid in India: This latest development during the President’s visit to France (Hindu April 20, 2000 “French editor apologies to Narayanan“) is the result of a drama played by India’s rulers who maintain a double-face one inside India and other for outsiders.
These rulers are so worried over the South African Apartheid while a more gory form of Apartheid is practised inside India.
The President did the right thing in exposing this double-face of our Aryan rulers when he said on return to Delhi that what the French dailies wrote about was a “reflection of what the Indian media had been writing in the past three years”. (Hindu, April 23).
Daily insults: The President, an Untouchable from Kerala, has been facing daily insults. In Kerala, where caste exhibits itself in its most naked form, he continues to be treated as Untouchable by its ruling Namboodiri and Nayar castes even to this day. The upper castes and their monopoly media have been pouring daily insults on him.
At an award-giving function in Bangalore, the holy vaidiks refused to shake hands with him fearing pollution. Close friends who met the President told us that he was unburdening his agony with the visitors. Particularly after the Vaidik Vajpayee Govt. came to power, the President was subjected to all sorts of humiliations.
The French daily, Le Figaro, disclosed nothing but this fact when it called Venerable Narayanan an Untouchable. Yes he is. Over 20% of India’s population is Untouchable. Read the latest Human Rights Watch report on India: Broken People: Caste Violence Against India’s Untouchables, New York, 1999.
Editor’s passport case: DV Editor’s passport was impounded in 1986 exactly for this very same reason that he exposed the double-face of the rulers during his visits abroad. The rulers did not like the Editor speaking about the Untouchables and their persecution outside India because they have been projecting a false picture for outsiders: about its non-violence, democracy, human rights in Gandhi’s India. But over 85% of its population have none of these. The Untouchables are the worst persecuted. Le Figaro is right in calling President Narayanan an Untouchable and thereby exposing the racist rulers of India.
We congratulate Le Figaro and call upon it to send a special correspondent and find out for itself how India is the original home of racism. The Aryan rulers exported racism to the West from India. (Brahminism Father of Racism, Fascism, Nazism, Dalit Sahitya Akademy (1994).
