'Dead man' runs for India's presidency
23 June, Daily Telegraph
A 'dead man' is running in India's presidential election next month
to prove he is alive.Santosh Kumar Singh, a 32 year old cook, has spent
nine years trying to prove to officials that he is alive after his high
caste relatives declared him dead following a row over his decision to
marry a Dalit woman, known as an "untouchable".
He has written to the prime minister, without success, and has now
registered himself as one of 12 candidates for the presidency in the
hope that the paperwork will prove his existence.He had left his village
in 2000 for a job in Mumbai where he fell in love and married a Dalit
woman.
When he returned to introduce his new bride to his high cast
relatives three years later they told him he was a disgrace and chased
him away, he said.
"They filed a missing persons report which was later changed into my
death report.
The villagers even conducted post-funeral ceremonies and gave alms to
the poor to prove I was dead," he said."Some of my relatives with help
of police grabbed my 12.1 acres of land.
I went to the police for help but they attacked me. They said: 'So
far you are dead only on official papers, if you don't vacate this
village you will be dead for real.'" he added.
A legal action to overturn his death certificate was dismissed last
year, he said, and his mother-in-law has been ridiculed for allowing her
daughter to "marry a dead man".
When he visited a police station in central Delhi to file a report
challenging his 'death', he was told by officers he would need to commit
a crime to generate case documents.His manifesto contains only one
pledge to be recognised as alive and he has no desire to be president.
"I filed nomination papers for the president's post to prove that I
am alive. I don't want to be the president. All I want to do is prove
I'm alive. If the government cannot declare me alive then I request them
to kill me and issue a real death certificate in my name," he said.
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