In a spectacularly ignorant and ill advised ordinance the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) government of an erstwhile Indian royal Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan has imposed minimum educational qualifications for contesting village panchayat(council) elections. In so doing it has replicated in reverse the franchise extending actions of the pre-independence British government of India. Under pressure from Indians the British colonialists extended to their Indian subjects very limited rights to vote. In many cases the rights were limited to the Indian royalty, the rich and the ones with prescribed educational qualifications that not too many Indians possessed at the time. While they did extend limited franchise they did so with the poison pill of separate electorates embedded in it which fuelled separateness that eventually proved fatal to the country's unity.
Although one is left to wonder but the Raje government is not a colonial government and Rajsathan is not separating from India. But with this neoconservative/ neo colonial ordinance the government has at one fell swoop taken away the basic adult franchise of about 80% of Rajasthanis that along with other Indians they have enjoyed since independence. The panchayats are the level of government closest to people. They should be at least as inclusive, if not more so than the state and the central governments. The Rajasthan ordinance limits the right to contest for the posts of sarpanch to candidates with grade 8 (in some poorer areas grade 5) and for contesting panchayat samiti seats to grade 10. This is the government that closed 17000 schools almost all in rural areas; now they want to punish the less schooled by taking away their right to adult franchise. Only a relic of Indian 'royalty' could have dreamt up this unjust and unfair ordinance that defies all known norms of constitutional democracy.
The ordinance smacks of the worst kind of arrogance that can only come from being completely out of touch with the poorer and rural parts of Rajsathan. It reeks of elitism of the rich and the educated. Some argue that this educational bar to contesting panchayat and samiti elections is to ensure less or no embezzlement of funds in the hands of panchayats. In India many of the most educated are the most corrupt. We know that education is no bar to corruption, mismanagement or lack of ethics. Why should lack of education be a bar to basic democratic and constitutional right to adult sufferage?
On December 8, 2014 I wrote a blog post "Stop the excuses: Build a corruption free India" about 12 and 11 year old Aniket Bhoir and Monali Adari of Ambika Nagar, Bhawindi. On the way home from school they found 80 Lakh(8million) Rupees and some documents. They asked their parents to find the owner which was done with a miss call from a borrowed mobile phone. The two poor children from poor families returned the money and documents to the retired teacher they belonged to. No minimum education was needed to be honest and upright. One doesn't have to be literate to be ethical, honest and a defender of the public good. Those qualities are a must. And for education perhaps the Rajsathan government can reopen the recently closed schools. The ordinance should be unceremoniously dumped. If not Vasundhara Raje should be unceremoniously dumped by the BJP.
The development man Narendra Modi could never have anticipated this kind of retrograde ordinance from any BJP government in any state of India under his prime ministership. But now Mr. Modi appears to be under a bit of seige. On the one hand the saffron brigade continues its campaign of saffronisation of India in one form or another including the ill conceived ghar vapsi conversion scheme and glorification of Nathu Ram Godse. On the other hand in VasundharRaje's BJP raj democracy and basic constitutional rights of the most vulnerable Indians are under threat.
Modi's development agenda is in danger of quickly being swamped by the reckless actions of BJP state governments and the saffron brigade, his former home. There is still time for him to take charge. But to be able to firmly place himself in control he has to publicly disown the zealots of Hidutva which he has so far refused to do. Mr. Modi's silence is dangerous for India; for the idea of a united, prosperous and harmonious India. India is waiting with bated breath for him to speak up. Will the famed orator Modi stand up and be counted?