Just a tool in their hands
Isaac Newton famously said, "If I have seen
further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." So, as a person
with disability, I should be flattered that Arvind Kejriwal and India Against
Corruption (IAC) have tried to stand on the shoulders of persons with
disabilities to strike at alleged corruption in the UPA government. Similarly,
I should also be happy that Union Minister Salman Khurshid and his wife Louise
have brought disability to the front page of every newspaper.
I do not know the truth about the allegations of
forgery and the other lurid aspects of the claims made by IAC against the Zakir
Hussain Memorial Trust run by the Khurshids. As a lawyer, I have been trained
to rely only on facts and not allegations and therefore this article is not
about the claims made by Kejriwal.
This article is primarily for me to vent my
anger at the distasteful way in which both sides have used persons with
disabilities to further their case. Those of you who watched the interview of
Louise Khurshid on a leading English TV channel would have seen a disabled
gentleman sitting on her left. This gentleman did not say a single word during
the interview. In a sense, the entire story was about that gentleman, but it
was so obvious that he was being used as a prop by Louise Khurshid that it
became embarrassing to even watch him. The TV channel obviously thought so too
and after a few minutes completely cut him out of the picture.
Similarly, Kejriwal is using persons with
disabilities to push his agenda. He has gone so far as to say that he will
field a disabled candidate against Salman Khurshid in the next elections.
So what impression do I get from all this
coverage and what does this posturing say about persons with disabilities? To
me, it seems very clear that both Kejriwal and Louise Khurshid believe that
persons with disabilities have no point of view and need mouthpieces to express
their opinion. It is also clear that they assume, wrongly, that persons with
disabilities are waiting around for handouts whether in terms of wheelchairs or
the chance to stand for elections. Persons with disabilities have been used by
both of them as the opposite of "arm candy" — to generate sympathy
for their respective causes simply by getting persons with disabilities sitting
around.
All this
points to the simple fact that persons with disabilities are still regarded as
second-class citizens in this country and we cannot do anything without the
charity of able-bodied persons. Yes, it is true that we need accommodation and
changes to the infrastructure in many cases for us to be able to exercise our
rights on an equal basis with others. But these changes and accommodation must
be based on the recognition of the equal rights of persons with disabilities
and not on pity. We do not need people in power being patronising towards us
and providing us help because they either feel sorry for us or because they
feel good that "they did something good for those helpless people".
The Constitution of India has guaranteed equality to all its citizens,
including its disabled ones. All legal and policy changes we have been fighting
for has been on the basis that we have equal rights guaranteed under the
Constitution and that changes are required to enable us to meaningfully
exercise our rights. Unless this fundamental aspect is recognised, any change
will only reinforce the prejudices against us, and downstream implementation of
these laws would be based on the mercy of the implementers.
I would like
to point out a hidden opportunity that persons with disabilities have for
politicians. It is estimated that almost 10 per cent of India's population is
disabled. At present, the large majority of the disabled population is not
organised into any political group. This largely ignored constituency is
eagerly waiting for the first political leader to understand the real concerns
of persons with disabilities and take concrete steps to include them into
mainstream society. The first person to do this will be able to get votes from
a large percentage of its population. Clearly Kejriwal, who is looking at
politicising disability, is approaching this issue from the wrong perspective.
Of course,
Louise Khurshid and Arvind Kejriwal may be genuinely concerned about the
welfare of persons with disabilities. But from what I saw, neither of them has
understood that the real concern of a person with disability is that s/he
should be treated with respect and as a person first and foremost, and not a
tool.
The writer is with the Inclusive Planet Centre
for Disability Law and Policy
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