Leading judicial and social activists have written an open letter to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, seeking the withdrawal of an ordinance stipulating minimum educational qualification for candidates contesting panchayat and zila parishad elections.
They have expressed apprehension that the move will debar more than 80 per cent of the rural populace from contesting those elections.
Terming the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 as “discriminatory and unconstitutional”, the letter said: “We are deeply distressed… that the ordinance has been promulgated without any consultation or dialogue with political parties or civil society.”
The over 100 signatories to the letter include former Chief Election Commissioners James Lyngdoh and SY Quraishi; former Chief Justices Rajinder Sachar and K Chandru; former Additional Solicitor General of India Indira Jaising; senior journalist Kuldeep Nayyar; activists Baba Adhav and Aruna Roy; and former Secretary to Government of India, EAS Sarma.
Seeking wider public debate on the issue, the letter points out that 23 of the BJP MLAs in the current Vidhan Sabha are below 10th pass, as are two BJP MPs from Rajasthan.
At the same time, almost 20 per cent of Union Cabinet Ministers are below 12th pass.
“Surely, if the Prime Minister finds MPs with such low educational qualifications suitable to devise and implement policies for the entire country, a sarpanch of a small gram panchayat need not be held to such arbitrary and exclusionary standards,” the letter said.
According to the Rajasthan ordinance, promulgated just days before the announcement of panchayat polls scheduled for January-February 2015, those contesting in zila parishad or panchayat samiti polls have to be at least 10th pass, while those contesting sarpanch polls have to class 8 pass.
“Only 18 per cent of rural Rajasthan’s population has studied beyond grade 5 and only a shockingly low 5 per cent of rural women have education above grade 5 (Census 2001),” said the letter.
Literacy ratesIt added that “mere literacy — the ability to read and write with understanding — is only 61 per cent in Rajasthan’s rural population and there are only 45 per cent literate women in rural Rajasthan (Census 2011).
Literacy rates for rural Scheduled Castes in the State are even lower.”