Panchayats need Free themselves from the Clutches of Political parties

 

Panchayats need Free themselves from the Clutches of Political Parties   

                                                                                                                             Lalit K.  Kaul

For a genuine and vibrant democratic system to establish itself in this part of the world it is imperative that the Panchayats rid themselves of the iron grip that the political parties have over them.

It is a well known fact that the freedom movement leadership, across the spectrum, were not only highly influenced but also held in awe the European philosophies that claimed to emancipate the common man. Therefore it had been settled that the Indian masses that had been driven to the state of unprecedented misery and loss of dignity by the British rule could be liberated from the extant state by adopting 1) Socialism, 2) Communism and/or 3) Capitalism. All these ‘isms’ were alien to the natives who had been robbed of everything that they owned before being colonized.

There was this odd man out who gave a model for emancipation of Indian masses which they understood and therefore identified with. Not only was his model consigned to the dustbin of History much before gaining independence, but post independence he was brutally liberated from the scene.

The Ruthless Imposition:

Having chosen one of the alien philosophy for ‘emancipation’ of Indian societies, it became necessary to take full and complete charge of all kinds of administrative set ups that represented a thinking different from the then political leadership insofar as developing vibrant Indian societies was concerned.

So Panchayats were the natural targets insofar as indoctrination of the hapless masses by ‘enlightened’ and ‘educated’ messiahs was concerned. Panchayats had to take new ‘avatar’ that without question endorsed the thinking, and the policies based on that, of the new messiahs. It was the imperative that they in their new incarnation religiously believed that they and the people they represented had, indeed, been and continued to be ignorant, superstitious and therefore backward; and the only way to enlightenment was the new doctrine  imported from land of colonizers.

Therefore unabashed intrusion in to the space of Panchayats by the political parties, across the spectrum, was necessary to enable them to brainwash people in to believing that only they knew the route to salvation.

The party system of democracy, perhaps, gained acceptance because cadre building created some kind of employment for emaciated and exploited young and old. The trained cadre job was to propagate from top to bottom one of the three chosen philosophies: socialism, communism and capitalism in as many regions as they could. This was bound to become an ever expanding industry because it assured meeting with basic needs of day to day life in a society that had been looted of all its resources. It also evolved in to survival of the fittest game and so emerged the politics of violence.

Thus the Panchayats gradually but surely were transformed in to mouth pieces of different political parties and they lost their relevance. Not only they lost their relevance, but were also polarized on the basis caste and religion thus leading to fragmentation of Indian societies.

Why Imposition?

Much before Indian elite was born under British dispensation; the Panchayats were the basic administrative units. The terminology ‘Panchayati Raj’ fundamentally represented a totally decentralized system of administration in all the walks of human life and its associated endeavours. Therefore it can be easily said that the character and the thought process of Panchayats across the regions was heterogeneous as dictated by the climatic, geographical and resource availability of a region.

Therefore their intrinsic knowledge base and the political dispensation also differed from region to region that in true sense characterized the much talked about diversity of the Indian sub continent. The British took away everything – that was gross and physical – from the people of the sub continent, but could not snatch the intrinsic knowledge base and their respective world views from them. This knowledge base and its associated world view, lying dormant, was a potential threat to the philosophies that the leaders had decided to thrust upon the hapless people and therefore its annihilation beyond repair had to be ensured.

The Rejuvenation of Panchayats:

Today at the end of 70 years – after having gained independence- all are witness to fragmented and polarized Indian societies; ever increasing economic disparities; growing dependence on non-available jobs; the farce of reservations; concentration of wealth and therefore natural resources in a few hands leading to the mortgage of the destiny of millions and enabling the loot and exploitation of natural and human resources. Human beings have been reduced to non – thinking entities ever dependent on the doles offered by the governments of the day. One comes across humans all the way, but they are, in fact, robots programmed to fall in line with the ruling class imposed dispensation; every form of dissent / protest is unhesitatingly crushed or allowed to die in the war of attrition between the self proclaimed ‘givers’ and the  majority non-receivers.

Those who claim to be the part of ‘main stream’ are no different from the outsiders to the main stream. They can afford a comfortable and hassle free life only if they fall in line otherwise face persecution; the puppets who claim to be free thinking individuals.

If all this has to change then the politics has to make the transition from being party based to that of people based and it is here that Panchayats have to play an all important and significant role by way of reorganizing the societies in a way that transcends the divisions created willfully by party politics. It is only the Panchayats that have the ability to resurrect that dormant knowledge base and their world view which British could not rob and stand up to the alien models of growth and development by bringing their ever evolving knowledge base in to the public domain.

If, indeed, Panchayats have to reassert themselves then they need to ensure that no political party member/ representative contests the Panchayati elections. Panchayats having freed themselves from the influence of political parties shall have the capability and the conviction to develop a model for development and growth for liberation of their people from indignities that they suffer at the hands of self proclaimed messiahs. They shall have the legitimacy to demand of the state and central government leadership to implement the programmes that they know would do well for their people. This would lead to genuine planning from bottom to top as opposed to the contemporary top to bottom planning.