mockery of democracy

Nathu vadla, a small village of Gujarat with hardly 1000 population flashed in news recently. The coming panchayat election in this village was to be conducted on the basis of 2001 data. The village has at least 100 Scheduled Castes people and one seat was to be reserved as per law, but the census data has not been modified and in 2001 the population of SC was nil in the village, the election in 2013 was to be conducted on the basis of 2001 census. In a shocking judgment, Gujarat High Court stayed elections in Nathu vadla village saying that it is ‘mockery of democracy’.

It seems that Gujarat government is ‘vibrant’ only in allotting land to industrialist and it becomes stagnant when it comes to empower the weaker sections. Though, this particular judgment is dealing with anomaly in one village, there may be more such Nathu vadlas, where the ‘babudom’ might not have bothered to modify the data as per latest census. 

here, is the judgement:

IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD

SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 369 of 2013

PARMAR PRAVINBHAI MULJIBHAI....Petitioner(s)

Versus

STATE OF GUJARAT & 3....Respondent(s)

Appearance:

MR JV BHAIRAVIA, ADVOCATE for the Petitioner(s) No. 1

DS AFF.NOT FILED (N) for the Respondent(s) No. 3 4

GOVERNMENT PLEADER for the Respondent(s) No. 1

MR AMIT J SHAH, ADVOCATE for the Respondent(s) No. 2

NOTICE SERVED BY DS for the Respondent(s) No. 1 2

CORAM: HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE JAYANT PATEL and

HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE MOHINDER PAL

Date : 17/01/2013

ORAL ORDER

(PER : HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE JAYANT PATEL)

1. Draft amendment granted.

2. It prima facie appears that as per the petitioner, the population of the Scheduled Caste in Nathuvadla village is 121 as against the total number of voters of 1099. Therefore, if the said proportion is considered read with the notification issued by the State Government for reservation of the seats dated 11.05.2012, there has to be at least one seat reserved for in the gram panchayat for scheduled caste.

3. The learned AGP Ms. Thakore appearing for the State Authority concedes to the position that if the population based on the census of 2010 is considered, one seat may be required to be reserved but in her submission, such census are not published as that of 2010. She submitted that as per the requirement of the Gujarat Panchayat Act read with the constitutional provision for making reservation of the seats, the data or the population figures should have been published. She submitted that the data which has been published are based on the census of 2001 and as per those data, the population of scheduled caste is shown as nil in the village in question and therefore, no seat is reserved for scheduled caste or scheduled tribe in the particular village.

4. Whereas on behalf of the State Election Commissioner, Mr.Amit Shah while supporting the stand of the State Government, contended that the requirement for reservation is that the population data are published and the basis of reservation would be the data so published. If the population data is not published even if made in 2010 by the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, even if voter list exists, after considering the censure of 2010, the reservation cannot be made since such data are not published.

5. In our prima facie view, it would be a mockery of democratic principles if the elections are to be held in 2013 from amongst the voters whose names are there up to the last date of preparation of the voters list, in any case, after 2010 and may be up to 2011, but the seats would be allotted on the basis of the so called census data published as back as on the census of 2001. The country has gone by 10 years period and so is for the village. In the year 2010, the population is already recorded, the data are provisionally published by the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs through office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India and the same is reflected in the website of Census India, copy whereof is produced during the course of the hearing. The population data, in any case as per the census of 2010 are available with the State Government, therefore the reservations or the allotments of the seats are required to be made accordingly after considering such data. If those persons who have become citizen after 2001 and some of them may have become voters during the period from 2001 to 2010 are ignored for the purpose of making reservation or allotment of the seat including that of woman candidate, it would frustrate the basic intention and object of the relevant constitutional provision for giving appropriate representation to the respective category of the voters or the citizen, may be scheduled caste, may be scheduled tribe, may be other backward class or may be between the women candidates amongst the general category. Therefore, in our prima facie view, such an action would run counter to the democratic principles of allowing appropriate representation to the appropriate category of the voters or the citizen, as the case may be. However, as the larger issue for election of various gram panchayats in the State is not before us and the present petition is restricted to challenge qua the election of Nathuvadla gram panchayat, taluka Dhrol, district Jamnagar, the relief could be considered qua the election of gram panchayat of Nathuvadla only.

6. Hence, the following order

(a) By interim order, it is directed that the election of Nathuvadla gram panchayat, taluka Dhrol, district Jamnagar shall remain stayed of one seat which may ultimately be required to be reserved for persons belonging to scheduled cast whose population does exist in the village.

(b) The aforesaid will be with the additional direction that the election process and ultimate declaration of the result of the remaining seats of Nathuvadla gram panchayat, taluka Dhrol, district Jamnagar shall also be subject to the final order which may be passed by this Court in the present proceedings.

(c) It would be open to the election authority to identify the seat for whose election is stayed after considering the population in the respective ward of that particular village.

7. D.S. permitted.

Opportunity

You have Harshad Mehta,
We have Fulandevi,
Let us celebrate this equality of Opportunity!

Haryana's Rapist Regime

 Anand Teltumbde

In the wake of 19 cases of gang-rapes of dalit girls in Haryana in just one month, and the utter callousness with which the state government has dealt with such criminality, the time has come for dalits to embrace class unity in the struggle for liberation.

After the Manesar incident that exposed the unlawful labour practices of Maruti Suzuki and other leading capitalist enterprises in Haryana, backed by the state government, the province is once again the focus of attention, this time for its feudal traits. There have been 19 gang-rapes of dalit girls, one more gruesome than the other, in a single month. While the government’s response has been lethargic, the notorious khap panchyats of the dominant caste, the Jats, have, in a way, justified these rapes by advising that girls should be married off before they reached the age of puberty to avoid rapes. Important politicians unashamedly endorsed this shocking solution in public; some of them even dismissed the rapes as basically consensual acts turned sour. These are not one-off examples of reckless statements by some discredited individuals; the sexual assaults and the care-a-damn attitude of the state’s political establishment represent an abiding pattern that makes the state a veritable hell for dalits.

Roguery of the Rich

The state of Haryana exemplifies the rapid enrichment and empowerment of dominant farming castes in the post-Independence period; it also epitomises the cohabitation of global capitalism and debauched feudalism. After separation from Punjab in 1966, Haryana has remained a predominantly Hindu state with Jats as the dominant caste. Today with a per capita income of Rs 92,327 (2011), it tops the list of the states on that score, except for Goa with Rs 1,32,719. But the distribution of income and wealth is very unequal – the Jats have disproportionately cornered the benefits of rapid economic growth, and their leaders, with the privileges of power and pelf, seek to keep the rest of the community in their thrall. The state has however emerged as one of the country’s major centres of agriculture, manufacturing, business process outsourcing and organised retail. Gurgaon, with its glass and metal-clad, high-rise apartment blocks and commercial complexes, best represents the development of Haryana. But even beyond Gurgaon, the general infrastructure of the state surely rivals the best in the country. Nevertheless, beyond this facade lies a state of antiquity, ruled by khap panchyats, where the incidence of forced abortion of the female foetus is well above the national average, where honour killings happen all too often, where incest is rampant, and where dalits are treated like slaves, lynched and raped at will.

Recall the 16 October 2002 lynching of five dalits by a large and violent mob on the main road outside the Dulina Police Post, near Jhajjar town in full view of the police and several senior district officials. The victims were accused of skinning a cow, the killers were glorified as heroes who had avenged the death of “our gau mata”. The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Parmanand Giri had openly stated that those who had killed the “gau-hatyare” (killers of the holy cow) must be honoured. The VHP President Giriraj Kishore justified the killings, saying that “the life of a cow is more precious than that of a human being”. Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and Sarva Khap Panchayat openly lent support to the killers and opposed any action against them. Such is the terror of the Jats, who take pride in their valour (read criminality), that the then district commissioner of Jajjhar had expressed his helplessness to a visiting team of activists of the People’s Union for Democratic Rights, saying that no administration could function in the area without pacifying the sentiments of organisations like the VHP, and negotiating with the khap panchayats.

On 27 August 2005, 55 to 60 dalit houses were burnt down by a violent mob of 1,500 to 2,000 Jats in Gohana with full support of local police. On 21 April 2010, two dalits were killed in Mirchpur and their houses set ablaze. Last year, 70 dalit families of Bhagana village in Hisar were ousted following their social boycott by the Jats. In all these cases, there was arrogant support for the perpetrators of crime. The khap panchayats’ honour killings, public justification of such killings by Jat spokespersons and politicians, their passing of a resolution against the struggling Maruti Suzuki workers’ union, and several such actions are nothing but a manifestation of the naked roguery of the rich Jats of Haryana.

Haplessness of Dalits

Dalits live in perpetual fear of Jats in Haryana. On account of worsening of the female sex ratio (there are just 877 females per 1,000 males, far below the national average of 940 as per census 2011) the incidence of incest is high. But when the khap panchyats issued a fatwa against the within-clan marriages, dalit girls increasingly became the victims of sexual assault. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports show that the number of rape cases where dalit girls/women are the victims has consistently gone up from 21 in 2007 to 56 in 2011. While at the national level, the number of rape cases wherein dalit girl/woman are the victims went up by 15% over the period, the increase in Haryana was 167%. In September 2012 alone, there have been 19 cases of gang-rapes of dalit girls. Among these, there was the case of a 16-year-old girl who was gang-raped by a dozen upper caste men in Darba village of Hisar district on 9 September. The rapists had filmed the horrific act and circulated the video. Unable to cope with the situation, her father committed suicide. Another dalit girl of the same age, who was also gang-raped in Sachcha Kheda village in Jind district, burnt herself to death. A five-month pregnant dalit woman was abducted and raped by two youths in Kalyat. Practically, the gangs of bahubalis, with the patronage of politicians, can rape and kill dalit girls with impunity. Haryana has witnessed such rape cases in several districts, including Rohtak, Hisar, Jind, Bhiwani, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Sonipat, Ambala, Karnal, Faridabad and Kaithal in September this year.

Unlike the dominant Jats, the dalits are poor and without protection. They can be easily terrorised by the upper castes, which exert pressure on the family of a rape victim not to report the matter to the police. If the family still approach police, the latter dissuade the former and do not easily register the case. Only under public pressure do the police seem to register crimes against dalits and arrest the culprits. When the case is registered, most victim families are coerced by the Jats to go in for an out-of-court settlement, and accused of destroying the village’s inter-caste harmony if they refuse to succumb. While the victim’s family incurs the wrath of the powerful Jats of the village, the police do everything to weaken the case.

Options before Dalits

Traditionally dalits have relied on the state as a neutral arbiter and hoped it would do them justice. The colonial state created this hope and the postcolonial state, pretending to conduct itself as per the Constitution, which dalits believed to be the code of Ambedkar, reinforced this reliance. Despite persistent disillusionment over the last six decades, this trait appears intact, perhaps for the lack of any better alternative. The state has not only been callous; it has also itself been a perpetrator of atrocities. In every atrocity that has come to light, the complicit or active perpetrator’s role of the state has been evident. Besides, the state has consistently acted against the poor of which the dalits have been a preponderant part. In recent years, the security syndrome has come handy for the state to label them as Naxalites and persecute them. The state is completely exposed in its anti-dalit role. The anti-people col­lusion of the legislature and the executive apart, even the judiciary – that was held in high hope – with its biased judgments, has failed to create confidence in dalits.

The executive, the legislature and the judiciary – they never tire of mouthing the cause of social justice – stand exposed in the manner in which they have “managed” dalits who would other­wise have revolted. Underlying the entire representational logic embedded in the reservation system is a Macaulayan colonial strategy. The chosen dalit political representatives, sarkari intellectuals, and the entire section of the middle class created by this logic are meant to “manage” vast dalit masses. Who will then take care of the latter’s interests? Who will do what to a Congress leader who rubs salt over dalit wounds by saying that “90% of the girls go out of their own will”, the state president of the Congress who dismisses the whole matter as a “conspiracy to malign the government”, Haryana’s khaps that prescribe how girls should dress so as not to provoke young men, the Sarva Khap Jat Panchayat that says the age of marriage for girls should be lowered to curb the rising incidents of rape in the state, and Om Prakash Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal who endorses this recommendation in a shameless manner?

The question really is what dalits should do. Ambedkar posed this problem way back in 1936 and had come out with a communitarian solution of merging into an existing religious community to overcome the intrinsic weakness of dalits. He did convert two decades later, but to a religion which did not have any such community in India. The conversion, as could be objectively seen, made little difference to the condition of dalits. Ambedkar’s vision of “annihilation of castes” is eclipsed by the upsurge of sub-caste movements of dalits. His construction of “dalit” as a quasi-class of organic proletarians stands effectively demolished. Ambedkar is reduced to an identity icon devoid of any emancipatory content. Dalits reflect the same cultural strands that enslaved them over millennia. If the Jats have khaps, the dalits also have theirs; if others have their jati panchayats, dalits have theirs, may be with a changed label. In this state of affairs, and taking a cue from Ambedkar’s diagnosis and vision, the only option that remains for dalits is not communitarian unity but class unity. In Haryana, the Manesar episode shows that the young educated workers are alienated from the khap panchayats who have condemned their struggle against exploitation. There is sizeable progressive force, albeit fragmented in Haryana, which can build class unity encompassing dalits to defeat the vile designs of the rapist regime.

Liberation may sound utopian but it is surely within reach. Haryana is the ideal land to begin the process.

Do not believe

Do not believe, because I tell you.

Do not believe, because a religious saint or a mahatma or a sadhu tells you.

Do not believe, because your teacher tells you.

Do not believe, because a political party tells you.

Do not believe, because it is written and reported in a news paper.

Do not believe, because it is ‘live’ on a TV channel.

Do not believe, because it is ‘held’ in a judgement of Supreme Court.

Believe it, when you think it is best in the larger interest of Poor, suffering humanity.