A peep into the Village Polity

Sitting in a fairly comfortable room of my farmhouse in the midst of fields in a village in Haryana; I am feeling the Heat. Not of the scorching sun of this summer which is making new records with each passing day. Its Election time!! Elections? Only a handful of people living in the cities might be aware of it, but here electioneering is at the zenith. Yes, it is in reference with the Panchayat Samiti, Block Samiti and Zila Parishad Elections. Sometime in a Law class, a Professor termed the Panchayat Elections as the most multifaceted and enigmatic of all. I now realize, why. There have been a string of intriguing events in the months preceding the elections. I have been following it all in the heart of the action terrain, though trying to maintain a sanctimonious distance. Over a period of less than two months, there have been at least 15 individuals endorsing their candidature for the Post of Sarpanch. All of them professing their respective names and trying to woo the others.

It has been more than a decade and half since the inception of caste based reservation at Panchayat level. Getting deeper into the detail of village level Panchayat system – there are different wards for which members are elected. These members who are called Panch, along with the Sarpanch(head of the panchayat) form a village panchayat. The village, in case study has 11 wards, out of which 7 wards are reserved for this term. There have been three draws to decide, if this term will be reserved for SC/ST or for women or it would be an open candidature for the Sarpanch election. There have been several writs filed in the Hon’ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana, with regard to malfeasance in the draws. Anyhow, everything is settled now and the elections are on 6^th of July. One of the criterion for deciding on the reservation is the number of electorate from different castes. If there are more SC/ST voters in a village then that village would be reserved for SC/ST. Furthermore, there are lot of intricate procedures and technicalities involved in assigning which area would be reserved. Apparently everything appears to be fine, giving an upright impression of upliftment of women and weaker sections of society. But then, Is politicization of caste not dividing the nation? Moreover, this procedure is not justly explicit. If there are already more votes in the SC/ST category, then naturally their candidate would have a better chance of winning the election. Why not let them be free of stigma of a lower caste and contest an open election. Perhaps winning an election against a general category candidate would give more confidence, vigor and authority.

Divisiveness at the very root of the nation: Now, try to obtain an idea of how bad this gets. In a village of less than 2000 electorate, people are not just divided into SC/ST, BC and general categories. In each of these; there are many castes, who too consider themselves different from the other. The case village, having this term a reserve SC/ST Sarpanch candidature elaborates how much The Caste has divided our roots. Even in the SC/ST category there are voters from 6 different castes and they want their candidate. Voting will be done solely on the basis of caste, not on the basis of credentials of the candidate. This trend continues till the Parliament. Some might believe that this is just in villages due to lesser literacy levels, but I have come across well literate individuals/friends who are generously into differentiation on the basis of caste. They differentiate not only on the basis of upper-caste and Lower-caste (SC/ST), but even in the so called upper-caste. There is so much of this malice called Caste in our system that it threatens to destroy our society and Nation. I have keenly observed this reservation at least at the panchayat (village) level but I am yet to come across any benefit it has done to the fate of a poor villager. We have given Politicos, the license to divide us first in terms of religion and then in caste. When will we have an electorate which will be concerned about the ability, credentials and the willingness of the candidate to work justly, rather than bothering for religion or caste?

Yes, DIVISION is a requisite, not in terms of caste but in terms of Rich Class and Poor Class. There has been so much disparity of income between these two classes in this decade. Policies should be formulated so as to help the poor and bring purchasing power parity. We need development, which 80% of our country has not seen yet.

REAL INDIA demands Progress.