After Rajasthan, Haryana has become the second BJP-ruled State to fix minimum educational qualifications for those contesting panchayat polls, thus excluding a vast swathe of the poor and socially disadvantaged from aspiring to becoming members of local bodies.
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the passage of a Haryana government sponsored-law by the Assembly. The Khattar government had pushed the legislation through even though a writ petition that had been filed against the ordinance issued earlier had been stayed by the Haryana and Punjab High Court.
On Monday, Jagmati Sangwan, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), the women’s wing of the CPI(M) said, “Those who have worked in the past in an exemplary manner will now be left ineligible to contest… the conditions – an educational degree, a pucca toilet, non-default of any bank loan and electricity dues – will target people suffering from socio-economic deprivation…available census data suggests that 83 per cent of SC women, 72 per cent of general category women, 71 per cent of SC men and 56 per cent of general category men in Haryana will be rendered ineligible on the education criterion alone.”
If Chief Minister Manohar Khattar had justified the law saying it “improves the quality of leadership and governance in panchayati raj institutions,” his predecessor, the Congress’s Bhupinder Singh Hooda called it “undemocratic and unwarranted”. Indeed, Mr. Hooda also asked, “People want to know if Members of Parliament and legislatures can be uneducated and still make laws, why are qualifications being prescribed for panchayat elections?”
The laws passed in the two States (in Rajasthan, the ordinance was replaced by a law earlier this year) are violative of the 73rd Constitutional amendment that provided for local self-governance in rural areas.
Activists’ concernShortly after the ordinance was passed in Rajasthan, a group of civil society activists, lawyers and former civil servants – including former Chief Election Commissioners James Lyngdoh, and S.Y. Quraishi – had written to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje: “The purpose of the 73rd Constitutional amendment with reservation for marginalised social groups was to empower these groups and deepen their participation in governance.
“However, given the abysmally low levels of literacy, it is obvious that only the elite will be able to contest elections, not those who are poor or marginalised. Based on the 2010 Rajasthan panchayat polls, more than 70% of elected panchayat samiti members and 77% SC panchayat samiti representatives will now be debarred from contesting. Of the elected Zila Parishad members, 55% do not meet these educational standards with SC and ST worst affected with 61% and 63% respectively. The numbers of women PRI representatives affected will be even worse.”
