Congress threatens to launch stir over BJP plan

The Congress on Wednesday threatened to launch an agitation against the BJP plan to debar poor, dalits and adivasis from contesting panchayat polls by making educational qualifications mandatory. The Congress said it will raise this issue both inside and outside Parliament.

After its success in the fight against the Land Bill introduced by the Modi government and a controversy over the GST Bill, the Congress with the rest of the Opposition, is likely to make “mandatory educational qualifications” for contesting panchayat polls an issue against the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections in five states and in Uttar Pradesh next year.

Currently, mandatory educational qualifications have been implemented in the BJP-ruled Haryana and Rajasthan for the panchayat polls.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi mounted a fresh attack on the Modi government on this issue, accusing the BJP and the RSS of taking the right to contest panchayat polls away from poor, dalits and adivasis.

“Proud that Opposition came together against BJP’s attempt to exclude more than 50 per cent of India’s electorate from the right to contest elections,” he said in a tweet.

“By making edu qualifications mandatory for contesting Panchayat polls, BJP & RSS want to take this right away from the poor, dalits & adivasis.”

“The right to contest elections is a basic right of every citizen of India. Our founding fathers fought against the British for this right. They want to take this right away from all those who have been denied access, exploited & suppressed,” Mr Gandhi said in a series of tweets.

His reaction came close on the heels of the Modi government suffering an embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha when it adopted the motion of thanks to the President’s address with an amendment moved by Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, leading to a division in which 94 voted for the amendment and 61 against.

The amendment regretted that the address did not commit support to rights of all citizens to contest panchayat elections in the backdrop of the laws in Rajasthan and Haryana where matriculation has been fixed as the criteria for contesting the polls.

Later, addressing a press conference, Mr Azad dared the Centre and the BJP by asking “if they have guts then they should implement it in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.”

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh said his party would make the “right to contest elections” an issue inside and outside Parliament.

Responding to a question that the Prime Minister had said that minimum qualification is required for qualitative improvement in local bodies and panchayat elections, Mr Ramesh said: “You don’t need qualitative improvement in the Lok Sabha, you don’t need qualitative improvement in the Vidhan Sabhas, and you need only qualitative improvement in panchayats and nagar palikas. I don’t understand what is the political logic ”

“You don’t need educational qualification to become a member of the Lok Sabha, the Assembly or become the Prime Minister or even education minister, then why it is being applied in the panchayat and municipal elections ” he asked.