Hate and disgust of BJP towards democracy can be seen at its full display since this party came to power on its own in Haryana less than a year ago. But the most glaring exposure of its authoritarian agenda is being witnessed in the farce it has made of the panchayati raj elections.

All actions of the state government regarding panchayat elections, starting  from the deliberate non-compliance of the constitutional mandate of holding elections in every five years up to imposing of conditions through ordinance  aiming at depriving the marginalised sections from contesting the elections, must be seen as part of the BJP game plan to do away with every shred of democracy in all walks of life in general and in particular in the all important domains of local grassroots level institutions, like the panchayati raj system. It truly follows its colonial masters in this respect. Prof. Prem Chowdhury in an article (in The Tribune, September 24) has cited an infamous quote of Winston Churchill thus, “Indians are not fit to rule, they are fit to be ruled.” She has urged very strongly not to prove Winston Churchill correct by telling our people that they are not capable of ruling themselves and can only be “ruled”.

Before we deal with the legal developments that happened at the level of the High Court and the Supreme Court, it is necessary to take note of the fact that the panchayat elections must have been accomplished positively before July 25 when the five year term was to expire. Meaning thereby that the election notification should have been made latest by the first week of July as mandated by law.

Instead of asking the Election Commission to announce the dates, the state cabinet on August 10 took a decision to amend the Panchayati Raj Act 1994 seeking to include certain conditions as eligibility  criteria  for the  candidates to contest on various  posts of  the three tier system. There was absolutely no mention of such a move prior to the cabinet decision which stipulated five conditions viz educational qualification, clearance of crop loans taken from banks, clearance of electricity bills and  arrears, chargesheeted under sections of crimes involving 10 year imprisonment and  a functional pucca toilet at the place of residence of  the  prospective candidate. Such extraneous conditionalities for contesting the elections came as a shock to the people. The CPI(M) gave a call for protests and effigies  were burnt all over the state during the very next two days on August 11 and 12.

Totally ignoring the opposition voices and those from the majority affected people, the BJP government brought an ordinance on August 14 knowing fully well of the impending monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha merely  two weeks later. The draconian ordinance was challenged in Punjab and Haryana  High Court by several persons including CPI(M) ex- zilla parishad member Suresh Kumar who had worked as a committed representative in his five year term, in spite of being an under-matric.

The High Court stayed the ordinance on August 21 and issued a notice of motion for August 28 to the Haryana government. Merely three days after the assembly session began and the government fearing a defeat in the High Court withdrew the ordinance and on the last day of the session put the Bill to vote late in the night and declared it adopted with a voice vote, while rejecting the demand for a secret ballot by some opposition MLAs. Then comes the worst as the Raj Bhawan assent was procured during the night itself thus making the black law even more sinister.

The institution that intervened the least in this entire exercise is the State Election Commission whose responsibility is to conduct a free and fair election within the stipulated time. Also the person least active is the Election Commissioner himself. One Rajiv Sharma, an aspirant of the BJP ticket was actually accommodated on this constitutional post in lieu of an MLA ticket. He has virtually “outsourced” the work of conducting elections to the BJP government, acting only to put his signatures on the dotted lines as and when asked for this.

The next morning on September 8, the amended Act 2015 with arbitrary obnoxious conditions was surreptitiously notified along with a unique act of synchronising with the election notification. In order to prevent the affected people from going to court, this notorious subterfuge was invented by Vasundara Raje for Rajasthan panchayat elections in December last. Although the Rajasthan High Court could not interfere in the election process, yet it subsequently made scathing remarks pertaining to imposition of education qualification as a condition for contesting elections. It strongly criticised the conditions.

The CPI(M) state committee in this situation gave a call to observe September 13 as a protest day. It issued a statement highlighting the danger such a legislation portends for the democratic rights of the deprived sections and described the sinister move a blatant attempt to subvert democratic participation of the rural poor in their local level important matters. The statement also criticised major opposition parties for not doing enough in opposing the onslaught on the peoples’ rights. The Party accused the Election Commissioner for conniving with the government and seriously undermining the independence of the election commission.

In the meantime, the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) took a commendable initiative to approach the Supreme Court through senior advocate Kirti Singh on behalf of three petitioners who were well known social activists in their respective places and had successfully taken part in panchayats in the past. Profile of these petitioner comrades is worth taken note of. Kamlesh Kaimri, Mahila Samiti Hisar district vice president is a dalit activist who could not attend school like thousands of others. But she learnt reading and writing after joining the JMS. Preet Singh, AIKS vice president and CPI(M) state committee member had been an elected panch and a neo literate. Raj Bala from Fatehabad too was elected as a panchayat samiti member last time. She had no formal education but can write and read.

The profile of the three petitioners is itself an enough testimony proving nefarious intentions of the government behind the criteria of disqualification. It further shows that overwhelming majority of the dalits, women, minorities, poor peasantry have been targeted for ostracizing them from being elected.

A simple look at the 2011 census reveals that in the age group of 21 years and above (age eligibility criteria for contesting election) there are 83.06 percent of dalit women who stand excluded.

Education eligibility criteria demands matriculation for general category men and middle pass for Scheduled Castes and women. 72.70 percent of general category women, 72.12 percent of all women are rendered ineligible for contesting. It means two third of the total above 21 year age becomes disqualified by one of the five conditions ie, education criteria alone. It is out of this grave concern that Supreme Court Justice had asked during the proceedings that “how can those responsible for high level of illiteracy still prevalent, punish the victims themselves.” Upto early 50s there were no primary schools even in several villages and children of those times are over 60 in age today. How much the government has done for education all these decades may well be judged by the fact that more than 40 thousand posts of school teachers are lying vacant in Haryana.

Similarly all the other four extraneous conditions like default on returning bank loans or clearance of the electricity bills and arrears or having a functional pucca toilet are totally unrelated to panchayati raj. Moreover, the government itself had to order in March last to put on hold the recovery of bank loans and electricity arrears owing to massive damage of Rabi crops due to bad weather and now it is covertly forcing the peasants to repay the loan. Haryana is one of those north Indian states that happen to be in the grip of severe agriculture crisis with highest number of suicides, even more than the national average. Many aspirants for the elections have to take money from private money lenders on hefty interest rates and pay back the crop loan.

Several landless poor families in rural areas have been deprived of residential space what to speak of a functional toilet. NSSO data shows more than one fourth households are yet to have toilet facility.

As far as the framing of criminal charges is concerned, a three Judge bench of the Supreme Court has held in a case in February 2015 that “we always say that unless a person is found guilty after a trial, we will presume him to be innocent. You are arguing that we should presume him guilty even before completion of trial and disqualify him from contesting election. Right to contest an election is a valuable right in a democracy.”

Ironically some sections especially among the educated do not see through the BJP gameplan and are carried away by the propaganda that education clause is necessary for candidates to reform the election system. They fail to understand that what is being taken away by the draconian conditions is not the right of deprived people alone to contest but also right of the electorate to choose a candidate of their choice. They are free to elect an educated one and reject an illiterate or less educated candidate. The Supreme Court had dealt these educational criteria in a different similar case and said that there was only a very thin line between the educated and uneducated representative as far as their abilities are concerned. It further said that what matters much is the commitment and sincerity of person to serve the cause. Well, if we look at the figure of voting percentage in various elections we find that it is the rural area voters who go to the booth in much more numbers in spite of being less educated compare to their urban counterparts who are more educated and go to the booth in lesser numbers. Is it not an indicator of the level of democratic consciousness? Saying so does not mean to undermine the necessity for education for all. That is a must and foremost duty of the State to ensure universal education to the citizens.

There is a BJP woman MLA in the present Haryana Vidhan Sabha  who is illiterate. Normally no one should have a problem over this. But BJP leaders should be asked whether they appealed the voters to defeat her and instead elect others who were well educated? No. They rather asked the voters to elect an illiterate and reject the educated candidates and she won. What a hypocrisy?

So the entire imbroglio is nothing but a clear-cut sinister move to scuttle democracy at the very grassroots and this is being done exactly at a juncture when the deprived sections like dalits and women had actually started to assert themselves and their share in development. Massive number of candidates filing the nominations on the last day of the first round following the Election Commission notification waving the conditions temporarily at the instance of Supreme Court on September 18, itself is enough indication of how the deprived lot have strong aspirations to take part in elections. It is this aspect of assertion of the disadvantaged that the socially and politically dominating vested interests, who happen to be instrumental in perpetuation of ruling class hegemony in rural areas, do feel threatened of. This also explains the reason behind milder resistance to the amendment from the side of major opposition parties inside and outside the assembly.

The CPI(M) in this context has decided not only to continue its fight  but to intensify it by taking up the challenge of threat to democracy.

AIDWA

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association, in a press statement issued on September 14, has strongly opposed the attempts of the Haryana government to disenfranchise a huge section of the population from contesting the ensuing panchayat elections in the state.

A press conference was addressed on September 14 in the IWPC office by the women and men who have worked in the panchayats in an exemplary manner but now will be left ineligible to contest, due to the Haryana government’s decision of so called eligibility. They have collectively filed a PIL in the Supreme Court challenging this blatant constitutional violation.

It may be mentioned that the Haryana dovernment had earlier promulgated an ordinance where four extraneous criteria were incorporated for eligibility to contest these elections. They have added the condition for an educational degree, the proof of possessing a pucca toilet, non- default of any bank loan and non default from electricity dues.

It is clear that these conditions will target people suffering from socio economic deprivation from contesting election. On the basis of a writ petition the Haryana  and  Punjab High Court stayed the ordinance, the state government went ahead with a legislation in the assembly and notified the elections with a tearing hurry.

On the basis of analysis of the available Census data, 83 percent of Scheduled Caste women, 72 percent of the general category women, 71 percent of Scheduled Caste men and 56 percent of general category men will be rendered ineligible on education criterion alone leaving aside others.

This is in complete violation of the constitutional provision of holding elections on the basis of universal adult franchise.

An AIDWA delegation along with these representatives met the chairperson of SC/ST Commission in this regard and memorandum was sent to the chairperson NCW and NHRC as they were not available.