Hours after the panchayat poll results were declared, the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed victory, as did Congress. Both principal parties in the State said their workers had won across the State in the local body elections. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that 90 to 95 percent of their workers were elected, while State Congress President Luizinho Faleiro said people voted in favour of the Congress as members of the party have been elected in the panchayats. BJP, that managed just 13 seats in the February Legislative Assembly elections, is now claiming that the panchayats have established the party as the main force in the State.
In an election that has not been held on party lines, and where local MLAs fielded panels in their respective constituencies, or backed candidates, and even propped up relatives as candidates, any party can claim victory, and this would be difficult to dispute. But there is one thing that the panchayat polls proved, it is that the vice-like grip that the politicians have over the local governing bodies has not loosened, despite panchayati raj activists consistently fighting for more powers and independence to the bodies.
This, political parties claiming victory in the polls, does not bode well for the independence of the panchayats. In the coming days local MLAs are going to get busy deciding which of the elected panchas will now get to be Sarpanch and Deputy Sarpanch, and some will even determine right away the ‘rotation system’ where a pancha serves a certain number of months as Sarpanch before resigning to pave the way for another. Such a ‘rotation system’ has been followed in many panchayats of the State in the past, though this is not how the panchayat system should function or was conceived to function.
The interference of the government in the functioning of the local bodies is what panchayat raj activists have been opposing, hoping for an ideal arrangement where the bodies are independent and where there is no ‘parallel governance’, as it has been called by activists, by the State government and its agencies. That parallel governance, however, continues and it is not just the government that indulges in it, but the panchayat bodies too depend on the government, especially the local politician, to take decisions on development and other aspects, opening themselves up to interference from outside the body and the village. If there should be any body to monitor the village bodies, it should be the Zilla Panchayats that are themselves seeking more powers from the government.
After the results were declared, the Chief Minister, however, said that his party believes in grassroots democracy and while supporting the panchayats, especially with disbursement of finance, he has called upon them to exercise their powers and do so with responsibility. He didn’t stop there but said he will hold the elected members accountable for non-performance. The government should take a step ahead and devolve powers to the panchayats so that the local body plays a bigger role in the governance of the village.
The panchayat bodies too should cooperate with the government in this. Besides, local political influence on the election of a sarpanch, those elected to the panchayat bodies should also understand the responsibility given to them and their duties. It is a constitutional body and the periodic voting out sarpanchas from the office and having them replaced by others, only to vote them out again, has to stop. This practice does not help the village development or administration in any manner, it only delays the administration and affects development plans.
It is now for the panchayat bodies to get down to the task of administration, and plan their projects with targets so that at the end of their five-year term that there can be a noticeable difference in the village. That should be the yardstick by which these panchayats should be judged.
