Reserved panchayats of Tamil Nadu

Gallows Poll : outlookindia.com :: S. ANAND: "It is a bi-annual ritual that has been played out 17 times in Tamil Nadu since 1996. In the four reserved panchayats of Keeripatti, Pappapatti, Nattamangalam (Madurai district) and Kottakachiyendal (Virudhunagar district), elections are a farce. For years, Dalits were not allowed to file nominations. In 2002 and this year, when the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI) forced a ballot in Keeripatti and Pappapatti, a dummy candidate propped by the caste Hindus was elected and made to resign minutes later.

In April 2002, P. Poonkodi, the DPI-supported candidate from Keeripatti, polled three votes.

His opponent, backed by the dominant Pirnamalai Kallar community (part of the mbc Thevar cluster), polled 341 votes but he resigned soon after. This April, the Thevars put up V. Azhagumalai as their 'puppet'. He secured 487 votes, but in a repeat of '02, resigned five minutes after being declared elected.

Poonkodi polled 29 votes. This was a tenfold increase in voteshare which meant that a larger section of the Dalits was voting independently. In retort, Keeripatti's Piranmalai Kallars imposed a social boycott on the 15 families they suspected had cast the 29 votes. They were not sold milk, rice and vegetables till the district administration intervened. In Pappapatti, the DPI-supported Narasingam spat out blood and died mysteriously a day after the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

The Thevars in these panchayats have been posing an open challenge to democracy and the Constitution. A Dalit could well be the president of this country, but cannot aspire to be the president of their panchayat. Economically dependent on the Thevars, the Dalits can't afford to antagonise them. The Thevars themselves are not too economically or educationally advanced. Accustomed to trading in and consuming ganja, these villages are steeped in the stupor of medieval feudalism. Democracy is an aberration here.

None of the mainstream political parties—the DMK, AIADMK, CPI, CPI(M), Congress or BJP—have dared to force an election in these troubled panchayats. It was only the DPI, led by Thol. Thirumavalavan, that in 2002 for the first time backed two Dalit candidates. While the anti-Dalit attitude of the Dravidian parties is pegged on electoral calculations and the Thevar vote, even the Left parties have been found wanting. While the CPI and the CPI(M) participated in a demonstration held by the DPI, they did not back the DPI candidates in Keeripatti or Pappapatti. Says G. Ramakrishnan, CPI(M) state secretariat member, "We do not have a direct presence in these specific villages." The irony is that the CPI(M) has represented Madurai in the Lok Sabha for two consecutive terms now.

"The state does not seem to have the political will to implement constitutional provisions as it does not want to antagonise the Thevars," says G. Palanithurai, coordinator, Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayat Studies, Gandhigram Rural Institute. He suggests blocking developmental grants to the panchayats. Or holding panchayat polls on a party basis as in Kerala and West Bengal.

If the situation is allowed to fester, more panchayats would follow suit. The Thevars have been demanding that the four panchayats be dereserved since Dalits are in a minority here. "If that happens, other villages will follow the precedent set by these errant panchayats. Dereserving is not the solution," says Thirumavalavan.

The DPI is filing a writ petition in the high court demanding that the government arrest all caste Hindus guilty of intimidating the Dalits in these villages under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. Says Thirumavalavan, "It is the duty of the government to protect the minority Dalits. Jayalalitha talks of rule of law in the Shankaracharya case, but ensures the unlawful rule of Thevars in these panchayats.This is not a Dalit issue, it is an anti-democratic, anti-constitutional issue. "

Says Ravikumar, editor of the journal Dalit, "There's no future for the Dalits of these panchayats. The government should rehabilitate them in a new village." He fears the silence of mainstream parties could effect an anti-Dalit pogrom in TN, like the anti-Muslim one in Gujarat."