Hail Modi. Hail Sonia. The caste system has been put to bed.

We have had Muslim presidents. We have had a Sikh president. So our secular credentials are firmly established. In KR Narayanan, we had our first Dalit president. So we were nearly on our way to abolishing the caste system. But not quite.

Now we are. One way or another, we will have another Dalit as president. Of course, Mr. Modi’s choice will prevail. Nitish Kumar cannot resist a man with a Bihari touch. Nitish blows so much with the wind nowadays that forget about others, even he doesn’t know which way he blows.

But he has lost his rudder. Mr. Modi took it away from him. Forever. The man who despised Mr. Modi now bear hugs him.

Poor Sonia. She has been left in the lurch. She has no option but to put up a Dalit against a Dalit. And a woman to boot. A Dalit woman whose Dalit father was denied the ultimate job, of the prime ministership, only because he was a Dalit.

But the caste system was alive and kicking then. No longer. With another Dalit as president, Hinduism has truly reformed itself.

Mr. Modi’s party remains firmly still a Brahmin-Baniya party. So the outreach to Dalits is a fantastic idea. But didn’t he just sweep the Dalit vote in UP. Oh, for goodness’s sake, the UP vote was a negative vote against the cyclist as well as against the elephant builder.

Now is the time for Mr. Modi to consolidate. As he eyes a new vote bloc, he can remain firmly ensconced in his chair for all foreseeable time to come.

But a Dalit in Rashtrapati Bhavan raises a ticklish question. It’s ok for India to have a Dalit as a trophy president, to show the world that India is now oh, so modern and the dead past is dead and buried, but will high-caste Hindus consort with a Dalit president as freely as they would with say a Brahmin one.

Begum, we have an invitation to dinner from Rashtrapati Bhavan. Normally, it’s a high honour, but this time? Yes, Ji, I understand our plight. Would we not get tainted eating from the same utensils as the President? Should not all Rashtrapati Bhavan utensils now be made of silver so that high-caste guests don’t get contaminated?

And we will have to wash ourselves really well when we return home. Perhaps even have a yagna or two to cleanse us from our misadventures.

The caste system remains the most odious blot on Hinduism, otherwise such a fair, noble, and accepting religion. That a section of its people are considered untouchable by birth; that they are not seen clean enough to be married with or interdined with; that they do most of the lowly jobs in the country, quietly accepting their fate and that darned karma; that they call themselves Hindu when they are not considered Hindu; this is a curse on our society, our culture, our religion, our very existence.

India has done much to redress the grievances of Dalits, but much more needs to be done. The stigma attached to them in the caste-Hindu’s mind must be removed. Heaven’s, they are the same same flesh and blood as a caste-Hindu, how can one man (or woman) treat another with contempt just because of the station of his or her birth.

These might be the idle ramblings of an idealist. The caste system has been around for thousands of years, and promises to stay for thousands more. Reformers, Ambedkar, Gandhi, have come and gone and made little dent on the tent of untouchability.

No argument made by numerous Hindu gurus that the scriptures do not sanction the caste system, instead sanctioning a meritorious Varna system, holds water. The caste system has become calcified in Hindu society. Nor does the argument, hey I touched a Dalit’s hand on the bus, so they really are not untouchable anymore–that is so laughable one can only shed tears of stupidity at such self-reformers.

As India’s Dalit president takes office, first and foremost, he must not be considered a Dalit. His identity is President of India, not India’s Dalit president. We, meaning high-caste Hindus, must shed all prejudice, especially in our minds, against him as we were able to shed against Kalam.

He is our near-sovereign, our constitutional ruler, the supreme commander of our armed forces. His ascension should be a matter of pride for us. The Rashtrapati Bhavan will not be sullied by him, instead it will be sanctified by the suffering that generations of his ilk have suffered at the hands of generations of our ilk.

Let his ascension be a small step on the way of ridding ourselves of the curse that has seeped into our society and religion and whose stains have proved so incalcitrant to wash away.