Two former Chief Election Commissioners (CEC) on Monday joined civil society activists in urging Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to withdraw the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2014, that stipulates minimum educational qualifications for contesting local body elections.
Pointing out that there are no such mandatory qualifications to contest MP and MLA elections, a letter — signed among others by former CECs James Lyngdoh and S. Y. Quraishi — flagged the fact that 23 BJP members of the State Legislature were below “10th pass” as are two BJP MPs from the State.
Noting that 20 per cent of Union Cabinet Ministers were below “12th pass”, the signatories argued: “Surely if the Prime Minister finds MPs with such low educational qualifications suitable to devise and implement policies for the entire country, a sarpanch of a small gram panchayat need not be held to such arbitrary and exclusionary standards.”
‘Discriminatory’According to the letter, the ordinance, “promulgated without any consultation or dialogue with political parties or civil society, will debar more than 80 per cent of Rajasthan’s rural populace from contesting elections and is discriminatory and unconstitutional”.
