''Auctioning'' of panchayats

EVEN WHILE THE leaders of the various political parties in Tamil Nadu are busy firming up alliances for the coming elections to rural and urban bodies in the State, there are reports from several villages that the village ``elders'' are engaged in finding a consensus among themselves to nominate presidents and members to the local bodies. The reports talk about auctions being held in villages and men (or women) who bid the highest amount are being ``appointed'' to the posts. Apart from the fact that such a method is inimical to the spirit of the Constitution (elected panchayats being a mandatory requirement after the 73rd and the 74th Constitution Amendments), the fact that it is taking place more specifically in those village panchayats reserved for the Scheduled Castes is clearly a move against the empowerment of Dalits and all those ideas linked to achieving social justice. While it is imperative for the civil administration and the State Election Commission (the authority responsible for holding the elections to the local bodies) to ensure that such moves are checked and those behind the auctions are dealt with under the provisions of the law, the political establishment across the spectrum too will have to challenge it in real earnest.

The means adopted by the village ``elders'' in this case and the idea of consensus (against contests) may appear democratic at the apparent level. But then, if only one looks at the developments in the larger context of the caste structure that pervades the countryside in Tamil Nadu (or for that matter in several other parts of the country) the true picture is palpable. The experience with the decentralisation process in the southern districts (from where there have been reports of such consensus- building measures) has been one of a series of atrocities against the Dalits. While the worst manifestation of this was seen in the murder of the Melavalavu village panchayat president (along with six other members of the Dalit community from there) by men belonging to the Backward Castes on June 30, 1997 (17 men have since been convicted to undergo a life term for the murder), there are scores of villages in the same region where elections were not held in October 1996 because the posts of president in those panchayats were reserved for members belonging to the Scheduled Castes. It is not just coincidental that the attempts to find a unanimous president for the village panchayats and ``electing'' the one who bids the highest are taking place in these very villages. It is clear that the ``elders'' (who are invariably from the Backward Castes there) are engaged in this exercise now only with a view to retain their own hold over the resources of the local bodies by way of setting up their own nominees from among the Dalits.

That such a conspiracy to exclude the Dalits from the institutions of governance is taking place even in a State where the Brahmanical order was challenged with such conviction by the Dravidian movement is indeed a cause for concern; it reveals the extent to which the parties that inherited the legacy of the Self Respect tradition have drifted away from their moorings. It is in this context that it becomes imperative for all the political platforms in the State to intervene with a sense of purpose and campaign against such discriminations based on caste identities. The coming elections to the panchayats will indeed be an occasion when the commitment of the leaders to principles of social justice and human rights will be put to test. A concerted campaign against such attempts to distort the spirit of decentralisation and empowerment of the Dalits becomes imperative in order to save civil society from slipping into a state of strife in the days to come.

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