THE All India Democratic Women’s Association organised a convention against Haryana Panchayat Raj Amendment Act on February 16 at Constitution Club, New Delhi. AIDWA has been continuously fighting against disenfranchisation of a huge section of population from contesting panchayat polls in Haryana and Rajasthan, thus attacking the democratic structure of panchayats as a whole. The convention was participated by social workers, mass organisation activists, legal persons, academicians and political personalities.

The spirit of the convention was strong disapproval and outright rejection of the highly regressive conditions and disqualifications imposed on the people for contesting panchayat elections in Haryana and Rajasthan. Hundreds of people, mainly women from Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi participated in the convention. They voiced the public opinion against the process of eliminating people from the electoral process.

The level of elimination of people from the panchayati raj institutions was already pointed out earlier. On the basis of Census data, 83 percent of Scheduled Caste women, 72 percent of general category women, 71 percent of Scheduled Caste men and 56 percent of general category men will be ineligible on education criteria imposed by the Amendment Act from contesting the polls. This is a total denial of Indian constitutional rights to fight for elections.

In the recently concluded panchayat elections in Haryana, as a result of implementation of the new Act, which was unfortunately upheld by the Supreme Court, the obvious apprehensions expressed by various democratic quarters have been vindicated. With the exclusion of majority eligible population especially dalits and women, the democratic space for marginalised sections got downsized. This was over and above the continuous aggression and discrimination, which the marginalised groups in India are facing under the current BJP rule.

The BJP government of Haryana is desperately seeking to create a false hype through sections of the media that more women and educated youth have been elected than in 2010. The truth is very different: 1905 seats have gone vacant, the total number of contestants for various posts has come down to 87,499 from 1,70,504 in 2010;  because of the shortage of literate aspirants, 39,249 candidates were unanimously elected (54.4 percent). It was claimed that better educated candidates would be elected but while graduates and above ZP members were 119 out of 374 (2010), this year they are only 95 out of 416. The convention resolved that protest needs to be raised from all quarters on these grounds.

Apart from the education criteria, other criteria, which the new law imposed, were failure to repay loans outstanding from co-operative banks, electricity bill arrears, and lack of a pucca functional toilet in the residence.While no one can argue against the benefits of education, penalising the poor who have been denied access to education by governments and judging their ability to be good public representatives solely on the basis of formal education is unacceptable.  The three petitioners who had challenged the Haryana government in the Supreme Court have all been effective public representatives despite their lack of formal education. It is also disturbing that the Supreme Court refused to take note of the fact that upholding of the Haryana government’s amendments would deny almost 2/3rd of the above 20-years population of the state the right to public representation. In backward regions like Mewat, the exclusion is startling: among men, it is over 80 percent; among women this is 90 percent. BJP ruled states would quickly respond to this undemocratic, pro-rich, anti-dalit, anti-woman and anti-poor measures.

Brinda Karat, patron AIDWA, Subhashini Ali, vice president, AIDWA, Kirti Singh, convenor, legal cell of AIDWA, Mani Shankar Aiyar, MP, Rajya Sabha, George Mathew, chairperson, ISS, Inderjit Singh, AIKS president, Haryana, Naurti from MKSS, Rajasthan, Sheela from Sakriya, Tara Dhayal, Suresh, Sartaj, and Preet spoke on the occasion. Jagmati Sangwan, general secretary, AIDWA placed the resolution of the convention. Prof. Prem Chaudhary presided over the function and Sehba Farooqui, AIDWA, Delhi conducted the proceedings.

Speaking on the occasion, Brinda Karat asked if education has to be a qualifying criterion for contesting panchayat elections what are the criteria for central ministers.  Given the class, caste and gender bias, 50 percent reservation for women has now become a mockery of reservation, she said. She said the running thread between the assault on JNU and the regressive Act is that whoever opposes or challenges the establishment will be attacked. This essentially is an organised attack on democracy. Subhashini Ali said, on the one hand Rajasthan and Haryana governments have made education a basis for disqualification in elections and on the other hand they are closing down primary schools. She called upon the people not to expect from either the government or the courts  restoration of their democratic rights but to become aware of and fight for the same. Kirti Singh who has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court lamented that the Supreme Court did not take into account our arguments and the statistics that we provided. George Mathew said this was done by enemies of power to the people. Mani Shankar Aiyer said the disqualification that could be enacted should not contravene the Representation of People Act, 1951. Inderjit Singh said that when the poor started asserting themselves, the rich felt the need for regressive steps to control them. Suresh, Sheela and Tara Dhayal observed that the State has to recognise the fact that the non-literates were deprived of education because their schools were very far from their homes. Naurti said the rich and the powerful do not abide by rules and regulation but impose conditions depriving the poor. Sartaj said she could not contest because of the new amendments in the Act. Preet ji said as a result of the amendment Act 64 percent of people have now been deprived of their fundamental rights to contest elections. Summing up the discussion, Prof Prem Chaudhury observed that the establishment is wary of people’s power therefore they have sought to restrict the electoral pool.

The resolution was unanimously passed in the convention and it was decided from the convention that AIDWA would file a review petition before the Supreme Court. The convention also agreed to put up a demand that the parliament should intervene, annul and repeal these retrograde laws. AIDWA took the decision from the convention to make an appeal to all political parties, democracy-loving organisations and to individuals to come forward and join hands in this fight to defend democracy and the basic rights of citizens enshrined in our constitution.  The convention also condemned the attack on democracy in all corners of the country, particularly what happened in JNU where JNUSU president was undemocratically arrested.