[Reader-list] Pune: Hindutva terror?

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Jigish

I would say that discrimination is done in both positive and negative ways.
The making of Kalam as president was in a specific context and an act of
tokenism. The same can be said with respect to Ansari as vice-president of
India or Pratibha Patil as the president. Today, Indian politics has been
reduced to acts of tokenism, where everybody indulges in it. Right from
ticket distribution to candidates on the basis of castes, to the selection
of PM and ministers and even the president, tokenism has become a part and
parcel of politics in our nation. The real problem is that acts of tokenism
don't help. Just because a Muslim or a Yadav or an upper caste or a Dalit
wins an election doesn't mean that the group she comes from has a better
standard of living during the time she is a candidate. Except in certain
cases, it will just remain that: a token act.

Rakesh