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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Just scrap it

Just scrap it

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published Published on Dec 24, 2014   modified Modified on Dec 24, 2014
-The Indian Express

The Rajasthan government has muscled through an ordinance to disqualify its uneducated citizens from contesting the coming panchayat polls - only those who have studied till Class VIII are eligible to stand for election on the general seats. That's a remarkable change in a country where the Constitution allows anyone above the age of 25, irrespective of sex, caste or education, to contest elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies. In ramming through this ordinance, the Vasundhara Raje government has gone against the spirit of the social contract enshrined in the Constitution.

When the founding fathers of the Indian republic were debating the draft Constitution in the Constituent Assembly, among the thorny questions before them was the question of franchise. With an overwhelmingly poor and illiterate electorate, universal adult franchise seemed to be as much a risk as a leap of faith. But in plumping for a right to vote for all - whether man or woman, educated or illiterate, the landed or the landless - they broadened the base of Indian democracy, allowing a vast variety of voices and perspectives to expand and temper the process of representation. In refusing to make education a criterion for candidates, it rejected a narrow - and elitist - definition of political talent. Arguably, that foresight has also given Indian democracy its depth and powerful appeal, allowing large sections of the impoverished and unempowered not just a voice in government, but also a stake in governance.

The Rajasthan government's ill-advised move potentially discriminates against a large section of the rural population, especially women (the literacy rate for women in the state is 45.8 per cent, lower than the national average, and far less than the state's male literacy rate: 76.16). It stands to reason, too, that this skews the playing field against other minorities and sections without access to education, for example, the Dalits and tribals. The argument that this would be a corrective against the reported misuse of panchayat funds lazily conflates corruption with a lack of education. There is great irony in the state pushing through such institutional bias, especially in Rajasthan, which has a strong and vocal civil society movement at the grassroots. Such a law has no place in a republic of the people.


The Indian Express, 24 December, 2014, http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/just-scrap-it/


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