People's Democracy

EVERSINCE the Jharkhand Panchayati Raj Bill was passed on the concluding day of the last assembly session in the end of March, 2001, it came under fire both from the opposition and the ruling alliance led by the BJP including the ministers of Babulal Marandi government. While the Left parties criticised the bill for the failure of the governemnt to sufficiently empower the Panchayats both under the scheduled and the non-scheduled areas of the state in keeping with provisions and spirit of the Central Acts of the 1992 and 1996, the BJP and the leaders of other bourgeois parties targeted the constitutionally available reservations and preferences granted to the adivasis in the scheduled areas of the Jharkhand under the Act.

The vital powers given in the Central Acts related to the rights of Panchayats concerning land, land acquisitions, minor minerals, minor forest products and forest related traditional rights of the people, prohibition and excise, money-lending and rehabilitation for all practical purpose have been taken away in the Jharkhand Act. Besides this, the state governemnt has also appropriated to itself the right to remove the elected village Panchayat Mukhiyas (chiefs) on flimsy grounds. The bureaucracy has also been put above the elected panchayati raj institutions and representatives and has been given the right to review the decisions of these elected bodies. The CPI(M) has demanded restoration of the rights of Panchayats and scrapping of anti-democratic provisions of the Jharkhand Act. The Party has brought out a booklet exposing the shortcomings of the legislation and has demanded immediate holding of Panchayat elections in the month of June as per the government announcement on the floor of the assembly, consensus of the all party-meeting and the directive of the Patna Hight Court. The Party has also demanded that the Panchayat elections be held on party symbols. The CPI(M) took initiatives in bringing all Left parties – CPI, CPI(ML), RSP and Forward Block on the one platform and in formulating a common stand on Panchayati Raj Act and on holding elections on party symbols. The Left parties submitted a common memorandum to both the government and the State Election Commission for removing the shortcomings in the Act and holding immediate Panchayat elections on party symbols.

On June 29, block-level joint protest action would be organised by the Left parties.

The first salvo against the Panchayati Raj Act was fired by the sitting BJP Lok Sabha member from Ranchi Ram Tahal Choudhary with a view to ingniting the casteist inferno. He was immediately joined by several ministers of Babulal Marandi government who accused the chief minister for taking them for a ride and got the Bill approved in the cabinet without giving them proper opportunity to study the Bill. Incidently, most of these leaders belonged to one caste-Kurmi. They appropriated to themselves the right to speak on behalf of the OBCs and the Sadans or the Mulvasis (the entire non-tribal masses) and attacked the Bill for subjugating the majority (73 per cent) to the minority (27 per cent) tribals. They openly declared that they would not accept the provisions of reserving 50 per cent seats and posts of mukhiyas, pramukhs and Zila Parishad chiefs in the scheduled areas for the tribals. They even went to the extent of demanding a revision of the basis for determining the scheduled areas and denotifying some areas out of the scheduled area list. But strangely enough Kurmi leaders who sought to speak for entire non-tribal people demanded in the same breath scheduled tribe status for themselves. They called for a Kurmi maha rally on May 25, 2001. It drew instant support from MPs, legislators and leaders of almost every political party except the Left parties. Many other caste groups also came out in support by erecting welcome arches or putting up hoardings and banners. Babulal Marandi provided another grist to their casteist mill just before the proposed rally. He announced a pacakage of 60 per cent reservation in the state government jobs. Everyone was immediately up in arms. The OBCs immediately rejected the 22 per cent quota, the scheduled castes felt let down by 1 per cent reduction in their share (from 12 per cent to 11 per cent) and the tribals not content with their 27 per cent, led by another BJP MP Salkhan Murmu were out on streets demanding 60 per cent reservation for themselves. The BJP’s agent-provocateurs have now come to occupy the space in the agitations both supporting and opposing the reservations in Panchayat and in government jobs. The clever strategam of the BJP has marked albeit temporarily. People’s attention has been diverted from basic issues of employment and development and other immediate reliefs for masses like drinking water, drought, education, medicare etc. BJP is also utilising this opportunity to create caste constituencies besides the political harvest it has been reaping through its communal agenda of divide and rule.

The Kurmi rally turned out to be an impressive show. Speakers after speaker tried their best to inflame the passion of the crowd which turned up in their festive best attires and it was difficult, as a local newspaper commented, to "spot a poor" among them. The sectarian politics has been taken to its highest watermark. So far, no street-fights have taken place, but one only shudders to think of the spectre that will unfold before our eyes, should such a relatively prosperous community take recourse to the use of arms. One can only hope that a Jharkhandi incarnation of Ranveer Sena is not born.

The Kurmi maha rally was not the only such caste rally. It was preceded by a series of big or small caste rallies, which were invariably organised by a known or relatively lesser known BJP leaders and blessed by some minister, MPs or legislators. The adivasis are being mobilised on sectarian platform by BJP MP from Mayurbhanj, Orissa, who has shifted his quarters of activities to Jharkhand and has floated an organisation called Adivasi Janadhikar Manch. This Manch, started its activities on an uncompromising anti-Babulal Marandi plank with the slogan that "We donot accept Diku (non-tribal) Jharkhand. We want an Adivasi Jharkhand."

Murmu took out Jathas thoughout the state launching vituperative attack on Marandi, but was suddenly seen holding out threats of dire consequences if the Governor refused to sign the Panchayati Raj Act, as it was without little realising that it suffered from many lacunae detrimental to the interests of the tribals. In fact, his real aim was to arouse the sectarian passion. On job-reservation also his demand for 60 per cent quota for tribals is serving the same purpose.

A new controversy was calculatively started by a police-officer by refusing to accept application forms for appointment of policeman from those not having demicile certificate with a cut off date of 1932.

While the chief minsiter Marandi has stuck to the Panchyati Raj Act with all its infirmities meant to help implement the New Economic Policies in Jharkhand, he has deliberately dithered on the question of job quota. A sub-committee of ministers has been set up to arrive at a conclusion which has proved elusive so far, but the daily reports of conflicting stands inside this sub-committee continue to stoke the caste-fire.

There is an atmosphere of one-upmanship on the question of job reservation. Even one Left party asked for 70 per cent job reservation and amendment to the constitution. Other bourgeois parties took it upto 90 per cent. These irresponsible demands in the face of a 50 per cent ceiling put by the Supreme Court was deliberately made to create confusion amongst both the adivasis and non-adivasis youth for narrow political purpose and breaking the unity of the masses. The CPI(M) spelling out its stand has exposed the nefarious game behind the agitations on the job quota and has demanded that within the framework of Supreme Court ruling, jobs for the scheduled tribe and scheduled caste be reserved in proportion to their population and job quota for the OBCs with economic criteria which excludes the creamy layer amongst them and some reservation for the poorer sections of the upper castes. Besides this, the Party has demanded priority to tribals in all government jobs in the scheduled areas. At the same time the party has also exhorted the youth to launch movement on their demand for inclusion in the constitution "Right to Work" or unemployment allowance to defeat the designs for breaking the unity of the youth.

The BJP-led NDA government of Jharkhand has also brought out a Draft Industrial policy, which if implemented, will further bring ruin to the people of the newly created state. The CPI(M) has been asked to offer its comment and suggestion. The Party has decided to prepare a critical note on it and along with the other Left parties could start movement against this proposed industrial policy. A joint meeting of the Left parties has already been held and a decision to oppose this draft policy has been taken. According to the draft, Jharkhand would be opened up to the Indian and foreign monopoly capital for plundering the state. The relevance of the Protective Tenancy Acts, Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act, Santal Parganas Tenancy Act and the Scheduled Area Regulation Act have been questioned. A 10 km wide and over 100 km long Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is sought to be created where no existing tenancy and labour laws would apply. Electricity Board would be trifurcated on the basis of generation, transmission and distribution and they would be handed over to private capital. Power distribution in three cities of Ranchi, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur would be handed over to private companies. Power rates would be substantially hiked. In the infrastructure sector also it invites private capital and seeks to commercialise them.

In this draft, industrial policy, nothing has been said about the job-creation, and job-opportunities. The backbone of Jharkhand’s economy, the central public sector undertakings, which contribute 50 per cent of the state’s revenue and on which its 60 per cent of population directly and indirectly depends do not find even a mention. There are continuous retrenchments in these industries in the wake of central government’s policy of disinvestment and privatisation. But the Marandi’s government is not at all concerned. Treading on the footsteps of the central government the Jharkhand government is also engaged in reducing jobs and job-opportunities.

Against such a bleak scenario the BJP and its allies are hell-bent on breaking the unity of the masses. The timing of job-quota policy declaration is a calculated manoeuvre. The vocal educated masses mainly youth have been temporarily derailed to the relief of non-performing Marandi government which has nothing to its credit except firing and killing of innocent masses.

The government has failed to even utilise Rs 2400 crore of annual plan. This years’s board examination for class X result has been worst in the last few decades. Only a little over 23 per cent have passed and from 22 mostly government run schools not a single student could pass. The issue of reservation in a state with extremely low literacy rate touches only fringe of its population, but machinations of the BJP is keeping its people busy now with this relatively much less important issue.

Now the RSS outfits have thrown another spanner in the wind by asking for exclusion of Christian tribals from the job-reservation. But now everyone is asking the question that how long can Marandi government survive by playing with fire?