PANCHAYET SYSTEM: OPPRESSION AND SUPPRESSION IN THE NAME OF POLITICAL DECENTRALIZATION

Abhijnan Sarkar

Alongside the economic policy of centralization by the British Government in India, the parallel policy of de-centralization of political power was rather remarkable, with the proposals made in 1882 by Lord Rippon which projected the local self-governance as the school of political awareness. And likewise in 1885 The Bengal Regional self-governance Act was passed and was later transformed to The Bengal Village self-governance Act passed in 1909. Later in 1957, according to West Bengal panchayet act, the terms 'union board', 'district board' were changed to 'gram panchayet', 'panchayet region' etc. More reforms like West Bengal District Act was introduced in 1963 and in 1973 during the fascist rule of Siddhartha Sankar Ray was introduced the West Bengal Panchayet Act. It was in this act that the three stage panchayet system was introduced and is today the base of the 'Left' Front Government panchayet system with minor
changes.

The Indian government had set up several committees to review the efficiency of this system, so that the state control over the masses can penetrate to the most marginal and grass root level and at the same time becomes acceptable to the masses as 'self-governance'. Most debated in this respect is the 1957 Mohit Committee (the committee famous for advocating 'panchayet raj' in the whole country) Report which pointed out that “the current system works in favor of a minor section of the society i.e. the ruling class and fails to address the needs of the weaker class. Even the 1977 Ashok Meheta report mentioned that the system was failing and “the dissent of the masses against the neglect is increasing” and the recommendation was direct and deeper relation between the villages and the parliament. The present advocacy of decentralized self governance is nothing more than the design to bring everyone under the state control and amongst the several ruling class parties; the CPI (M) has grasped it most profoundly as is evident from the rigidly successful implementation of the system in West Bengal. Within this system are the inseparable presence of corruption, regional rise of bureaucracy and the generous patronage of the new class – comprising of non-peasant landowners, traders of seeds, fertilizers etc. who have in terms preserved the se mi-feudal framework of the system – that has emerged holding the hand of the 'Left'. The central congress government along with the World Bank and the DFDI has praised the 'Left' front in no uncertain terms for this successful implementation of the system, a system which helps preserve the interests of the semi-feudal structure, the imperialist capital and the national corporate. With the implementation of neo-liberal policies, the congress implemented the 73rd constitutional amendment where it was mentioned in the 243B that “it is the responsibility of the State government to implement the panchayet system in the village level, the intermediate level and the district level.”


In the 1978 elections, the CPM's party strength was 30,000 most of whom were city based, they hardly had much organizational strength in villages. However in the panchayet elections they managed to nominate almost 70,000 candidates. This was made possible by the overnight decision by the ruling class of the villages to join CPM. This was important for the CPM to develop presence in villages and the ruling class took this opportunity to maintain their dominance. This class had clearly understood in 1977 that the CPM will not grab and distribute land from them and remarkably in the panchayet elections only 7% were landless peasants or bargadar, whereas 93% were the village upper class. In 1992 the panchayet minister of state Suryakanta Mishra asked the g o v e r n o r o f P u n j a b a n d I C S N i r m a l


Mukherjee to review the work of the panchayet. Later Mukherjee and the director of Asian Development Bank Debabrata Mukherjee jointly reviewed the system and published 'The New Horizon of west Bengal Panchayet' in 1993. Some sections are remarkable: “the initial interest of the panchayet system was declining from 1983 onwards. Finally after the third panchayet in 1988 no more interest was there. The dependence on the Johar income plan was so high that if the system is abolished, the panchayet will have no more work at hand, to the extent that the only way will be to abolish the panchayet system as a whole. The removal of land distribution system from under the panchayet supervision has also led to feeling that there is nothing left to achieve in that respect….the land reform was this much important an issue at the grass root level, however it is wrongly been stated as exhausted. Without bringing into consideration the several cases pending with court, it is being stated that very little land is left to be distributed and that fewer bargadars are left to be enlisted.” Thus the campaign that is continuously being carried out by CPM about their successful implementation of land reform has been exposed by a committee appointed by them. The committee further stated that the villages have more than 555 of the population living below poverty line however seldom their representation has been found in any post of panchayet in any level.

In few words the initiative to do away with the distance between the MP, MLAs and the village commoners failed miserably and the entire panchayet system became a centre for political individuals, feudal lords, party appointed school teachers, lumpens and so on.

The CPM has repeatedly mentioned their pioneering effort in implementing panchayet system by which democratic practice was supposedly percolated to the grass root. However nothing can be further from the truth! If only participation in elections by the masses is considered to be a measure of the democratization of the system then we cannot deny that America is democratic just because a high percentage of its population comes out to vote. Without initiating any alteration of the class structure of the villages, simply talking of democracy is not just a lie but is a design of the state machinery to spread out. Even Gandhi's consideration of decentralized power of panchayet, implementation of Ram's kingdom was utopian as it bypassed the fundamental question of feudalistic oppression. Not just the parliamentary 'Left' but even the ex-Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi painted a glorious picture of future after implementation of panchayet. He remarked “owing to the failure to make the people at the grass root level to participate in democracy, some politicians are able to misuse power. When 100-500 people stat to elect their representatives, then the representative will be under the surveillance of the village and his power and practice will be limited to the boundary of the village, and not the state capital or national capital.” Even the 73 and 77th amendment also speaks similarly in favor of ensuring and establishing the presence of the eyes and ears of state at the grass root level. And by involving the farmers to participate in this form of democracy, it is attempted to distract them from the any course of rural revolution.


In the much propagated panchayet election in West Bengal, where the 'Left' Front claims to have established model panchayet system, it is usual to find that opposition are forced not to take part. In 1978 'Left' Front won 338 seats uncontested. Similarly in 1983, the number was 332, however in 1988 it became 4,200, in 1993 1,916, it decreased somewhat in 1998 to 600 but then in the bloody election of 2003 it leaped to 6,800. In 2003, not just the opposition but the Front partners complained of their candidates being forced to withdraw. The 2008 elections were bloodiest by far with opposition as well as partner candidates being killed and villagers threatened, killed, houses burnt and looted. Even after this when the results were devastating for the CPM, it is worth noticing how the party won uncontested seats in Keshpur, Garbeta and many other places.
The myth of Land reform by the CPM government:

In the 1950s, the feudal lords and the remaining kings had their traditional power somewhat cut to size, further in and around 1955 the massive national and international socialist movements and peasant uprisings to an extent forced the national government to bring about the land reform acts. Then in 1960s faced with the Naxalbari uprising and its national spread out, the CPM was forced to act by organizing protests and demanding the program of grabbing lands from the landlords above a specific ceiling and redistributing them. The Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and American experts all agreed to the proposal of the CPM peasant leader and Minister Harakrishna Konar. They all agreed to the fact that this might succeed in containing the red revolution. Many peasants across the country succeeded in keeping the lands forcefully grabbed from their feudal landlords since the 1967 movements.

Mr. Debabrata Bandopahayay (whose contribution was recognized then by Harakrishna Konar as well as today by Binoy Konar) was closely related to the land reform in Bengal during the time of United Front and 'Left” Front. He wrote in Economic and Political Weekly (15th November 2003 issue) that the major amount of land above ceiling had already been grabbed by peasants or distributed during the United Front Government (1969-1970). Moreover the 'operation barga' was completed from 1972-82. The 2004 human Resource development report of the West Bengal government states that the number of enlisted bargadar as on 2000 was 16.8 lakhs i.e. 20.2% of the families living of agriculture. The net land recovered during 'operation barga' was 11 lakhs acre i.e. a mere 8.2% of arable land, however almost 20% barga were entitled to be enlisted. This
even if some hope was seen by the peasants at the beginning of the panchayet system, much of it was lost after less than half of the sharecroppers were enlisted. The same report mentions that the 11 lakhs acre land was distributed amongst 27.5 lakhs landless peasants. However it is well recognized that more than half of that land was already in the hands of the peasants as a result of the peasant movements of 1960s-70s. Further some 3 lakhs of the land was never distributed by the government at all, strangely some 13.23% patta owners lost their lands and 14.37 percent of
bargadars were evicted during this 'Left' rule when the panchayets were involved in this redistribution. In this situation, when these peasants had to depend on the money lenders, and forced to buy seeds and fertilizers from MNCs, resulting in fall in productivity some people were reaping the fruits of profits. Whether this was made possible by the village upper class, who had their interest in the semi-feudal and crony-capitalist social structure, by changing of parties from Congress to CPM, or otherwise is being felt by the poor and landless peasants of the villages. They are getting the answers every day.

Deciding Land Ceiling & Distributing Fragments of Land or Enlisting Bargadars cannot be the Only Face of Land Reform: By distributing small segments of land and imposing seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides manufactured by MNCs, the production initially improved, then they stagnated, more importantly these crops drained so much out of the lands that the traditional seeds could not be used any more. The fertilizers and pesticides became mandatory. With the increasing cost of production the farmers resorted to moneylenders who in terms gradually entered into unholy nexus with the MNC distributors and started lending out production equipments rather than money. Gradually the distributed lands slipped away from the peasants and passed on to medium and large landowners. The gainers have been the same upper class of villages who overnight turned towards CPM from Congress in 1977. Other gainers were MNCs and their distributors, most of who had links to local party leaders. These new landlords do not have the same character as the feudal landlords of the 1950s; they are modern and keep contact with the
cities, deals with instr uments of agriculture, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides. These people who have high influences in the local CPM party are the deciders of who gets '100 days of jobs', they contract out the building of village roads, they are directly involved in the misappropriation of the ration goods. These people control virtually all the panchayet projects and have amassed huge wealth. These people who never till lands are the biggest gainers of the agricultural economy and the protector of this semi-feudal structure. However they never prevent the intrusion of national or foreign capital into the economy. This entire system is well implemented and controlled by the CPM by means of the panchayet. The people who are the biggest losers are the marginal peasants and land laborers. The water levels have gone down by excessive usage of underground water, as the new crops demand massive watering and irrigation expansion has remained just a theory. The entire environment is been adversely affected. The CPM has made no effort to prevent the entry of capital in the agrarian economy; rather it has supported it as the distorted system is in term helping their local leaders. After Punjab's failure in green revolution, west Bengal is also treading the same path.

Accumulation of Land:

The 2003 convention of the Agriculture wing of CPM has accepted that within the land ceiling system a minor section has emerged who owns lands, as well as agricultural equipments, access to irrigation water, business of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and yet they do not till the land but carry out business by employing people. By 1982 the government grabbed 29 thousand acres of land and again during the third 'Left' front government further11 thousand acres were acquired. After that the land reform department took no more initiatives. But the department in its latest report has clearly mentioned that 2.5 lakhs acres of agricultural land have remained undistributed and some few thousands more were not acquired due to legal deadlocks. Another anomaly in the report with previous documents points to the obvious conclusion that some 80 thousand acres have disappeared. This extraordinarily large share of arable land has remained under the ownership of CPM leaders of the villages. And in spite of this huge amount of undistributed land the CPM claims “land reform work is practically finished.” (21st party congress of CPM, February 2005) This naked misuse of power has blunted the weapon of peasant movement in many aspects. Today any such initiatives of peasant movement have to go headlong into conflict
with the party machinery of CPM, their police, virtually the state power.


While the land is getting accumulated in the hands of few and the upper class is flourishing, the 20th Party Congress of CPM (2002) attacked those who held the view that “to strengthen the peasant movement, land ceiling must be lowered further.” Economist Sachidananda Dutta Ray had written in 2005, backed by statistics, that according to the recommendation of planning commission, if 2400 calories is taken to be the minimum requirement of an individual then 77% of rural population is below that (Anandabazar Patrika, 22-12-2005). As the economic condition of the rural population further declines, the inseparable ruling class and the CPM together are protecting and promoting the semi-feudalistic social structure based on the market, capital and other exploiting agents. CPM Government, peasant eviction and food crisis: Just before the panchayet elections 2008, Ashim Dasgupta pretended to be granting all wishes of the poor. In the previous budgets as well there was no dearth of promises, just last year he had declared to buy 30,000 acres of land and re-distribute among the peasants. Previously CPM shouted of distributing land above ceiling among peasants, but today it has resorted to land grabbing from poor peasants and passing it on to the hands of a newly rich landlord class. After this it had kept quiet about the land above ceiling for quite long until it declared the social democratic line of buying land for distribution, but even this won't be easy or even possible. The party that is ever active for grabbing lands for big projects by Tata, Salem, Jindal, Dow Chemicals and other international big capitals can only shed false tears for the poor peasants that too only looking at the votes. Looking into the promise of buying land for the poor brings forth an even darker picture. During the budget session Ashim Dasgupta mentioned that till date only 198 acres of land have been bought. While the troubles escalated in Nandigram and Singur, Ganashakti started propaganda about the plans of land distribution, and then came the drama of giving away patta-s just before the panchayet. Those who could not distribute 1% of the land promised in an entire year are hyper active when it comes to grabbing thousands of acres of land for the Tata and Salem by evicting poor unwilling peasants. The government has further plans of acquiring 1 lakh 40 thousand acres of land, Mr. Debabrata Bandopadhyay, former commissioner for land reforms have clearly stated that this will mean 1 lakh 50 thousand tones of less food grain directly impacting 25 lakhs of people.

Today we are witnessing a two step policy been implemented by this pseudo-Left government. On one hand it is carrying out efforts to centralizing lands into the hand of few in the villages, on the other, it is acquiring large tracts of land for assembling industries, housing complexes, shopping malls, SEZ to be built on the money of big capital and speculators. A new class of land owners is emerging, who are not the conventional feudal class, and they have their interests embedded in the international capital. Even the national bourgeois have adapted too well to this new flight of idle western capital, and are sharing a small but sizeable part of the pie. The capitalist control over the village economy has surpassed the conventional means like seeds, fertilizers etc. it is now controlling the village 'development', industrialization, contract farming and other aspects and is growing aggressive and intolerant. Nandigram is just another expression of this new development. Panchayet governance:

In the words of state general secretary of UTUC, leader of 'Left' Front partner RSP, Ashok Ghosh “In accordance to Indian constitution, the head of panchayet is probably the only person endowed wit the right to use and distribute money according to necessity. Whatever is necessary of basic survival i.e. direct financial support, distribution of seeds and saplings, 100 days of work per year, BPL certificate, temporary shelter in case of damaged houses, family disputes(even if uninvited), land issues, operation 'Barga' etc. panchayet has the right to give the final word. It is almost compulsory to obey the decision of the panchayet and even if there remains logical oppositions, on one can express that.” (Statesman 4-3-08) this system rather than decentralizing power gives rise to a fascist tendency even in grassroots level. The entire panchayet system has in terms consolidated the hegemony of Writers controlled from Alimuddin. This system has also helped strongly establish a new class that is a by-product of the neo-feudalism and imperialist capitalism in the villages. The power has greatly been centralized in the hands of this new class which has helped propagate the control of state machinery to every corner of the villages. Thus the minor capitalist development that occurs inside this is crony capitalism. In the same context Ashok Ghosh wrote “Today a different situation has arisen where people have started denying the Party, Panchayet head.”

Self-Help Groups:

In the relentless attack of imperialist capital where a high percentage of people are jobless or are loosing job, this concept of 'self-help' was introduced to get into people's head the politics of 'securing myself'. This on one hand can rid the government of its responsibilities and on the other will make village people more dependant on the party CPM. By 2007-08 there were some 7.34 lakhs of self-help groups with members amounting to 70 lakhs. Here also the self-help projects are implemented by the village panchayets and the rural development department. Here also the money-management takes central role. It was during the 7th 'Left' Front government that initiative was taken to develop a corporation for the same purpose, the 2008-09 budget has allocated 100 crores for the purpose. Moreover the self-help group department's budget has been
increased from 30 crores to 160 crores. Here also the CPM party has taken lead role in distribution of the money at the village level. The self-help groups have so far failed to solve any problem, the only thing it does is give corrupt and false hopes of a bright future. It will only implement the design of decentralized state power.

New-Agriculture policy:

As an effect of imperial global capital every single component necessary for agriculture is priced sky high. The high yielding seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and instruments have come completely under the domain of big capital and are beyond the reach of poor peasants. This has resulted in forced flight of peasants from their land. This phenomenon is twisted and presented as agriculture
becoming less profitable and the best resort being selling off the land. To counter this problem the CPM is following a new agro policy similar to what is being dictated by international big Capital and this is nothing less than dangerously fatal. This is appreciated by M.S. Swaminathan who was largely responsible for the green revolution policy of Punjab, which initially generated much hope by increasing yield but gradually destroyed the fertility of the topsoil. The new policy which the 'Left' Front is trying to forcefully implement via the panchayet is being already adopted by the Indian government. It involves large scale use of high yielding seeds (often genetically modified) and inorganic fertilizers and pesticides; it further advocates the implementation of contract farming and corporate farming. Thus in fewer words the policy is to bring farming more and more under the domain of global big Capital, which has caused the suicide of millions of farmers. And this is being projected by the CPM as ever green revolution as a propaganda before panchayet elections. The Panchayet is hiding incidents of starvation and Suicide: Many economists have tried to prove how the people below poverty line has gradually advanced economically during the term of NDA or UPA government in the centre or Left Front government in the state. However even if we consider the figure of 24000 calorie intake per head as minimum as stated by the Planning Commission, we find that by the 1983 national sample survey, almost 77% of population of Bengal fall below this.

The 21st State convention of the CPM in 2005 acknowledged in spite of gross under estimation that “4612 villages are in the category of the most backward in the State” and “considering employment and women education as indicators, 46 lakhs people are forced to live under conditions of extreme poverty. The state of unemployment is deep rooted and massive. The number of landless peasants is on the rise in villages. Compared to the 80s the rate of increase of agriculture has fallen in the 90s. The real wage and employment in agriculture has almost stagnated. Malnutrition is still a major problem in the villages, especially among women and children the issue of malnutrition, anemia is widespread. Amongst the poor, major section is Scheduled cast and tribe and their villages are amongst the most backward.” The national sample survey (Reserved Bank of India CENSUS 2004-05) indicates that West Bengal has maximum number of families starving (or under feeding) for almost for half the year.10.6% of population of Bengal partially or fully starves for quite a few months every year. This is the result of three decades of left rule and the result of de centralizing the State power to the grass root level. The glaring effects of poverty have been maximized many times further by the intrusion of global imperialist capital which has only aggravated the problems of the agrarian economy. The poor peasants, marginal peasants and share croppers have been most adversely affected; they are running to the local lenders for money and paying hefty interests as long as they can and ultimately choosing death over this life. Like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra, Chattisgarh here also the cases of farmer suicide are on the rise. To cover this up the Buddhadeb led government has on one had carried on propaganda of 'Agricultural development', 'Success of Panchayet System', 'Success of Land Reform' on one hand and on the other it says 'Agriculture is no more profitable', 'it is no longer possible to carry on land reform further', 'people are loosing interest in the Panchayet', 'the keens of Panchayet members have benefited', 'minimum number of people required are not participating in most panchayet meetings' etc. are being uttered (Marxist Path, 2003). But just before the elections the CPM party organ Ganashakti is busy propagating the stories of the Panchayet success. The picture of the tribal dominated regions of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia is grimmer. In the Belpahari block of West Midnapore, Amlashole village witnessed the starvation death of five tribal people in 2004. Then again another case came up on 29-12-2007 that of Kuna Sabar (Belpahari, Binpur-2), several others are awaiting the same fate. To cover up these incidents the CPM appointed BDO Sukumar Baidya carried out a survey and reported that “Belpahari does not have any crisis of food; every person living below poverty line is able to have at least three sufficient meals a day.”

Immersed neck deep in corruption, this is the true character of the bureaucrats appointed by CPM.
Corruption in several projects: The projects that are implemented via Panchayet are victims of massive corruption; the project fails to benefit any ordinary poor peasant. The money is mostly usurped by the CPM leaders. They also throw some of it to a few in the villages and have managed to prepare a class which entirely depends on the CPM leaders. These people in greed of this money bully the villagers on behalf of the party. Especially where the CPI (Maoist) is active, these people act as police and CPM informers.

In the 2003 issue of the CPM published “Marxist Path” the party has proudly declared “due to the recommendation of the State Finance Commission, some 1000 million rupees are being given to the panchayets.” It further mentions that “the State government wishes to carry out its decentralization policy in villages with more vigour. And the International Development Department of the British Government has shown interest in helping us.” To promote the corruption in the grass root level millions of rupees are being spent; now let us look at some results of this initiative.

In the Belpahari block alone, the 100 days of assured work has turned into a complete farce. The official record in spite of severe cover up notes that the 10 panchayet blocks of the area has given away some 33,470 job cards of which only 15,920 families have got on an average 7 days of job in the past 21 days. Moreover the total number of families in the block is 40,500 of which 16,551 are below poverty line. The BPL list has also been in the centre of corruption. Many families under the BPL category have not received any job cards and many outside BPL have received many. Those who did not get a job were not given any unemployment grant. In 2006-07 10 panchayets have even failed to spend the allocated amount. In the current financial year 1 crore 47 lakhs were allocated. People have not been given jobs and yet the expenditure has been shown as 1 crore 38 lakhs. Other projects as financial help for building house, child education have suffered the same fate. The block has failed to utilize even 1% of the development fund of 5 crores allocated. These examples are widespread in the Panchayets of Bengal; every single village has a list of such corruptions. The incidents mentioned are not even the tip of the iceberg. In fewer words the Panchayet system is the distribution of corruption to the grass root level.

The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.
Vladimir Lenin