The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : They set good example in panchayat poll campaign

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 01, 2005

Other States

Other States - Orissa

They set good example in panchayat poll campaign

By Sunny Sebastian

BHIM(RAJASAMAND), JAN.31. Elections to panchayati raj institutions in Rajasthan are an enormous exercise in which the rural people decide on the choice of 105,247 panchs and 9,178 sarpanchs besides electing 5,257 representatives to the panchayat samitis and another 1,008 to the 32 zila parishads in this geographically largest State in the country. Evidently it also turns out to be the time for large-scale misuse of money and muscle power.

There are sceptics who even say that the country could decentralize only corruption through panchayats in its attempt to decentralise power and resources. The little republics as conceived by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, are surely not the places where true democratic practices prevail.

Yet all is not lost. There is a silver lining amid the dark clouds of despondency as there are practitioners of grass root level democracy in places as backward Rajsamand. They have set examples for transparent and responsive functioning of gram panchayats.

When the Bhim-based Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) started exposing the corruption in panchayat bodies with the help of a series of "jan sunwais'' (public hearings) in the past, at least some of the well meaning people were anguished about its negative impact in the public. Now the Sangathan -- as it is known in these areas -- is all set to show the way acting positively.

"To a great extent we have been able to initiate a public debate into just electoral practices by fielding 12 candidates and showing it ourselves for the rest of them to follow'', said Aruna Roy, Magsaysay Award winner, talking to this Correspondent at Atolia village in Bhim panchayat samiti.

MKSS candidates are expected to go by foot to the villages to seek votes and no one is using a vehicle for campaign. Even when the maximum expenses allowed by the State Election Commission in the campaign for a sarpanch is Rs.5,000, the MKSS nominees will confine their spending to Rs.2000. "In the year 2000 it was Rs.1200. This time the increase has been allowed after taking into account the inflation,'' noted Shankar Singh, MKSS activist and star puppeteer.

"The standard issues which come up during the local elections have given way to issues like transparency, employment guarantee and adherence to the model election code,'' Ms.Roy, who took time off from the issues of National Advisory Council on the United Progressive Alliance Government's Common Minimum Programme, to be amid the villagers, said.

"We were now pleasantly surprised to find that many of the candidates from the political parties like the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have some of the items from our Peoples manifesto'', Ms.Roy pointed out even as she went around on a padyatra campaigning for Tara Devi, the MKSS nominee for Kushalpura gram panchayat in Bhim panchayat samiti. "Now there are fewer vehicles also in others' campaign,'' she pointed out.

A shy and illiterate Tara Devi, who is yet to free herself from the confines of the veil the society has forced upon her, is the wife of Narain Singh, sarpanch of Kushalpura for the period from 2000 to 2005 when it was a general seat. Narain Singh along with Tej Singh, who represented neighboring Todgarh gram panchayat in the past are the two success stories the MKSS flaunts this time.

"Narain had won the previous election after spending a mere Rs.1,200. He ran the panchayat also in an exemplary manner. The right type of person in sarpanch's post can do wonders as sarpanch's is one of the most powerful posts in the country. It is the only elected executive post,'' Nikhil Dey, MKSS activist and one of the founders of the Election Watch in Rajasthan said. Tej Singh or Teju has to his credit eliminating the practice of manual scavenging in his area.

But why did MKSS go for Tara Devi, the wife of a former sarpanch, when jokes on "sarpanch-patis'' are rampant in India's country-side? She is not even literate and can hardly speak a sentence of her own.

"When the seat was reserved for women this time we were not exactly prepared with a candidate. The literate women in this area belong to a different class. We then opted for Tara Devi as she is well versed with the Sangathan's commitments. As for public utterances, we have made it mandatory for all our candidates to address the electorate, even if it needs prompting,'' Mr.Dey argued.

"We are not openly asking votes for a particular candidate. We have a set of basic commitments the public wants from the candidates. That concerns all. In the case of candidates put up by MKSS, it is our commitment too,'' Ms.Roy pointed out. The "Janata ka ghoshna patra'', a two-page manifesto from MKSS pledges to adhering to the model election code which includes not offering incentives like money, liquor, "gur'' (jaggery) or transport to the voter on the polling day.

The manifesto forbids discriminating against anyone in the name of religion, caste, gotra, gender or region and wants the candidates to make a commitment on the development of the area, to keep the muster rolls of employment in relief works open to all and to ensure minimum wages to workers.

In Tara Devi's individual "ghoshna patra'' there are additional commitments to fight social evils like child marriage and holding of ceremonial feasts after deaths. She pledges not to be an usurer and promises to keep away from selling as well as using intoxicants.

There is a commitment from all the candidates to support the agitation for the enactment of a central law for employment guarantee, for which Ms.Roy and the economist Jean Dreze are fighting from within the NAC.

"This is quite natural as the proposed Right to Information Act and the Rural Employment Guarantee Act which are before Parliament now have their origin in the area where you are moving around now,'' Mr.Dey said pointing out the historic role of these otherwise nondescript Rajasthan country-side where dust and thorns of subabul trees seemed all pervading.

The candidates from the Sangathan are spread out in the districts of Rajsamand (5), Ajmer (5), Pali (1), Bhilwara (1). Of the dozen MKSS nominees four are regular workers of the organization. All except one--Kamla in Todgarh-- are fighting for the posts of sarpanchs. In the previous election MKSS had three candidates out of which two had won.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News Update

Stories in this Section

They set good example in panchayat poll campaign