From: M C Raj <mcraj.reds@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 9:11 PM
Subject: Interesting News for you
Friends
Quite a few things have happened in the past. Very interesting indeed! The Andhra Pradesh Chapter of the Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India have done wonderfully well with their State conference. A detailed report of the same is at the end of this information sheet. The Andhra team has done exceptionally well in translating Dalitocracy into Telugu and in bringing a galaxy of eminent people together to reflect on India's electoral system. We have given below the report as they have prepared.
This was followed by a planning for Orissa State Conference in Bubaneshwar. A team of intellectuals and political leaders met to plan for a two days Conference in the month of April.
Research in New Zealand
Both Jyothi and Raj left for New Zealand for their research on the Electoral system of that country with specific reference to the Maori people. We had long meetings with the University of Auckland for two days. It was capped by a meeting with the Maori Member of Parliament who is a very interesting person. Then we proceeded to meet with many elected members at different levels in Rotorua and in Tharangua. We were flashed in the New Zealand TV after our meeting in Tharangua. Two days after that when we went to the bank to exchange some money some people came and greeted us saying that they saw us in the TV and were much interested in the Maori people's issues. One of them was a young man from India. He introduced himself as a Brahmin from India and went on talking about indigenous culture and issues in a very positive way.
New Zealand follows the Mixed Member Proportionate Representation electoral system as in Germany. Nepal also has adopted this. Both countries have made some modifications to suit the needs of their countries. Since Raj has already done an extensive research on German electoral system we did not have to do a long one in New Zealand. However, the situation of the Maori people in terms of colonization requires an extensive study. It is the height of irony that now many Maori communities are fighting to get back their land. It is also very encouraging to see that they are su make acceeding in this.
They have done this against much odd, especially unity among different tribes of Maori. But by stressing on their history and culture they have gone a long way ahead. We remembered how difficult it has become to stress on history and culture among Dalit leaders. The 'self' in Dalit leadership seems to be an insurmountable roadblock. The Sami people in Norway have also made an amazing march forward through cultural unification. Land, ancestors, Shamanism, Primacy of woman etc. are strong connecting thread among the Sami, Native Americans of the US, the Maori people, the indigenous tribes of India and the Dalit people.
The Sami people have got their Parliament and are going great guns in economic and political development. The Dalit people are still struggling on many fronts. The economic status of the Maori people and their political assertions are amazing examples for emulation. Therefore, we have suggested that the Maori people should also establish their own Parliament and we should move in the direction of setting up a World Parliament of Indigenous people including the Dalit people. This was very well accepted by the Maori people. We are also talking to the Sami Parliament on this issue and if everything works well it will make a big history with also the Dalit Parliament in Tumkur expanding itself to the national level.
The challenges ahead of us are much. Our visit to New Zealand has increased the quotient of hope and that will energize us to move ahead. The following message from New Zealand is the solid ground of our hope. There are many such messages.
"Dear Raj and Jyothi,
I feel very privileged to have been involved in your visit to New Zealand. I understand from those present at the meeting that it was extremely worthwhile. You have both helped raise the profile of this organisation particularly in respect of our Maori Constituency Seats and for this we are very grateful. Perhaps the news item will give other Councils in New Zealand something to think about.
As you say, hopefully this is the beginning of a mutual relationship and I will certainly keep an eye out for information/conferences etc which you may find useful. I am unsure if you had a chance to see the news item from the Tauranga meeting so I have attached a Windows Media Player file of the news clip. The item is in the Maori language but it is subtitled.
Kia kaha, kia maia, kia manawanui
(Be strong, be courageous and be brave of heart)"
A Bit of Land in Tumkur
In the Dalit Panchayat we regained 6 acres of land yesterday for Dalits in a village in Gubbi taluk. This has been achieved without much ado as a result of the huge rallies we organized in January and February. This brings the total of the land regained by REDS and Dalit Panchayat Movement in Karnataka to 7264 acres of land.
YOIKANA, the New Novel of Raj
Raj has completed the final editing of his latest Novel. It is called YOIKANA, a name that he has coined as usual. Yoik is the spontaneous outburst of song of the Sami people. Sobana is the well wishing of Dalit women when they begin to like someone who has visited them. Yoikana is a novel that brings the Sami and the Dalit in a great romantic love story. Yoik and Sobana are put together to make Yoikana. As usual this novel is a 'never before' piece. But as you know it will be a Himalayan task to find marketing for anything Dalit in India. We are trying our best to get it published internationally.
Hope you will enjoy reading the following report of the State Conference of Andhra Pradesh.
Thank you for your patience and forbearance. Thank you also for some the very encouraging response that we get from some of you.
Warm regards
Jyothi, Raj and the REDS Team
Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India (CERI)
State Conference – Andhra Pradesh
The State Conference of Andhra Pradesh on Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India (CERI) was held at Hyderabad on 6th and 7th of February 2010.
On 6th it was held in Sundaraiah Vignana Kendram. Mr. JM Lyngdoh, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Mr. K Madhava Rao, Former Chief Secretary and Chief Election Commissioner of AP, Mr. Bojja Tharakam, Senior Advocate of AP High Court and State President of Republican Party of India, Mr. K Ramakrishna, former MLA, Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan MLA and President of Lok Satta Party, Dr. Manisha Bangar, Mulnivasi Mahila Sangh, Mr. M C Raj, National Coordinator CERI, Mrs. Jhansi Geddam, Convener, Dalit Sthree Sakthi and Mr. Korivi Vinay Kumar President –Dalit Bahujan Front participated in the Inaugural session. The other participants were academicians, advocates, and heads of various organizations, elected representatives of local bodies from all over the state.
The inaugural session was presided by Sri Bojja Tharakam. The CERI manifesto was released by JM Lyngdoh and Sri Kaki Madhava Rao released Dalithaswamyam, Telugu translation of Dalitocracy.
Mr. M C Raj in his keynote address explained about the objective of the 2 days conference and the campaign. He pointed out to the way democracy developed through different epochs in history and established that postmodern democracies have become handmaids of class and caste oligarchies. He said that we know power as dominance and power as resistance, whereas we need power of participation. This is not being made possible as most of the candidates are winning with only 25% of votes. He also traced the path that CERI has traversed and sought the active participation of all in the Campaign.
Mr. J M Lyngdoh, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, in his inaugural address termed India's democracy as a plutocracy of sorts. He said that the present system with criminals and constant defections will automatically change with the introduction of a system compelling 50% votes for the political parties to win the elections. This would be the starting point towards proportional representation. He said that the Election Commission has the power to register but not to deregister political parties. Hence even when it is clear that a political party has violated the code of conduct, there is no way to prosecute them. He suggested that ruling governments and political parties should be made liable to prosecution. Responding to Mr. Raj he made it clear that he is for a full Proportionate electoral system but has suggested a 50-50 Mixed system as strategy to start with.
Mr. K Madhava Rao, Former Chief Secretary, shared his experience as the Chief Election Commissioner of the state and emphasized much on the local bodies, where the dominant communities and their representatives play a key role. They prevent Dalits who are elected to the Gram Panchayats from discharging their duties and during elections they try to manipulate the election officers. To overcome this he suggested private people as election observers. When Mr. Jayaprakash Nrayanan put this into practice in Khammam District there were good results.
Mr. Bojja Tharakam said that representation should be in the ratio of population for all communities. This will enhance representation of hitherto marginalized communities while simultaneously restricting the disproportionate representation of some dominant communities. Representation of Dalits and tribals can be ensured only through the proportionate representation system. The UPA and NDA could form the governments with mere 30% of votes and how can they reflect the choice of people.
Mr. K Ramakrishna said that the government should bear election expenses of candidates and the selection of the candidates should not be based on caste and economic might. More than 300 MPs are multimillionaires. It has gone to a stage that only people with enormous money power can contest in elections.
Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan of the Lok Satta Party said that unless majoritarian system is removed justice will not be done to the unrepresented communities. India is clinging on to the old systems of the British. The proportionate electoral system should come in place of the present FPTP. In all the political parties internal democracy is necessary. We will have competent and honest candidates only when the parties follow democratic systems.
In the post lunch session the dignitaries on the dais were MC Raj, Jhansi Geddam and Korivi Vinay Kumar. It was open to the floor to share their experiences and spell out their opinions and recommendations on PES. The opinions from the floor are as follows:
Opinions:
- Hereditary in politics at all levels
- Resistance from dominant communities on the electoral reform in favour of dalits
- Money, power and anti-social elements are dictating the politics
- A rule for compulsory voting should be introduced
- The SC, ST, BCs are being treated as minority and their role is minimal
- The dominant castes are winning because of the votes of dalits.
- There is no need of politics if all the women and dalits realize their power of vote
- Even the elected dalit representatives are unable to discharge their duties
- May loose the existing representation due to PES
- To establish a separate political party for dalits.
The main fear expressed by all was that we will have to forgo the existing reserved seats if the Proportionate Electoral System comes into existence. M C Raj clarified that the PES has been wrongly understood and assured that through PES the representation definitely increases. The day was concluded with an inspiring speech by MC Raj. He reiterated that he is also from a poor, illiterate Dalit family. It is only his hard work that brought him to this stage. He assured that electoral system of any foreign country, be it Germany or any other country would not be followed blindly in our country. A thorough study on all the electoral systems would be done and a tailor made electoral system for India that suits best to our needs would be suggested. He felt happy that a proposal for a separate political party for Dalits be established has come from the floor and if such a party is established by Dalits, then that would be the largest political party in the country. He also quoted that Ambedkar was for PES in 1955 itself.
Day Two
The second day started with the cultural programs by the Dalit Sthree Sakthi Cultural Team. In the pre tea session Ms. Sumitra, Director of Ankuram said that often people tend to forget the root cause of the issue and search for the solution in the periphery. Only few activists like MC Raj go to the roots and look for solutions. She felt happy that there is women perspective in this campaign. Women should be an equal partner with men in understanding such issues. She opined that this campaign is very essential in this dangerous situation where the so called democracy is in the hands of criminals.
MC Raj shared about the work done by their organization REDS. Their demand was for the allocation of 5 acres land for each Dalit family. As a part of this movement, they made 452 members to contest in panchayat elections. To get the candidates win in the elections they made electoral alliance with other caste people too. Likewise they supported 11 candidates in the assembly elections of Karnataka and 8 candidates have won as MLAs. Later they decided that this campaign should not be confined to Karnataka, but spread all over India. Though they started the campaign with the demand for separate elections, they soon realized that this is not going to work. When they were researching on this, they found that the resolution passed in 1955 by Dr. Ambedkar was different. Based on that resolution, and with the suggestion of Mr. Walter Hahn who is the Coordinator of the German Dalit Solidarity Platform, MC Raj made a research on the German Electoral System. Today, more than 15 states have joined this Campaign on Electoral Reforms in India. In this successful journey, Raj proudly says that this campaign is not born out of intellectual exercise alone, but it is born out of experience, sweat and blood. He said that the main task is to understand what Proportional Electorate System (PES) is and what we want to give to the future from this.
Later Raj explained with examples power as dominance and power as resistance. While explaining this he said that Dalits, Adivasis, Indigenous people, minorities and women are always denied of rights on land, wealth and livelihood all over the world. Dalits and adivasis had self governance, but later on they were not allowed to have spiritual values, space, authority and power. The reason for this suppression is that the thought of intellectuality of Dalits itself is threatening the dominant castes. Then he said that whenever power is exercised as dominance, there is equal resistance for that. Enlightenment, liberalism and individualism are born out of this resistance. But resistance always need not be from the downtrodden group, it can be from the dominant group which is not in alliance with the ruling group. For instance, the freedom struggle of India was a resistance by the dominant caste forces of India in order to wrest power from the British. Under the leadership of Gandhi dominant power was snatched from the British and handed over to the caste forces of India. Now there is colonization of the Dalits by the caste system in India. The role religion played in the pre-modern phase has now been replaced by nationalism in the modern and postmodern period.
Indian political system and democracy are a natural extension that has come from the British. Later the Hindutva forces started taking the power into their hands and promoted cultural nationalism. As it was in the hands of the Brahmins, they wanted India to be a Hindu state. Mohd. Ali Jinnah, Ambedkar, Nehru had liberal thoughts and could not accept it. Patel, Gandhi and others had their own thoughts. At this juncture, the picture of nationalism was quite confusing. When British granted separate electoral system for Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Dalits, Gandhi went on a hunger strike opposing separate electorate only Dalits. Puna Pact came from this and Dalits were allotted reserved seats. These seats are neither dominance nor resistance, constituting no power to dalits. Hence there is a need to understand the PES.
In the post lunch session, MC Raj explained about the PES. He said that Dalits should have a separate party in every state and at national level, they should have a coalition of all these state parties. Even if all Dalits join together, it would constitute only 24%. Hence, the coalition should constitute all the dalits, adivasis, women and minorities. In the present electoral system, there is no advantage to the Dalits and other minorities. There are certain limitations in the PES, but it is better than all the other existing systems. Dual voting system can be introduced in PES where Dalits can vote for others, but others cannot vote for Dalit candidates.
Mr. Y L Jayraj said that the whole Electoral System is ruled by money, caste and criminalism. In this context, if we don't look at it from a Dalit and minority perspective, PES might prove to be waste.
In the concluding session Damodar, Professor in Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University said that this is the appropriate time to campaign on electoral reforms and we should feel proud that the Dalits have initiated this process in our country in a big way.
Later Vinay Kumar and Jhansi initiated the process of the state committee and asked for interested persons from the participants to join this committee. Below organizations and individuals have expressed their willingness to join the committee.
· Dalit Sthree Sakthi Team
· Dalit Bahujan Front Team
· Sunitha Prasad,
· Giri, Sravanthi Human Rights Organization, Kurnool
· MV Nageshwara Rao, Machlipatnam, Krishna
· AP Raja Babu, All India Human Rights Organization, Vyyuru, Krishna
· Shakhila, Jagruthi, Vijayawada, Krishna
· Kovena
· G Sheshu Kumar, Vaivaka, Mudinepalli, Krishna
· Babji, APDBVVU
· David, Swajana, East Godavari
· Umesh Varma, National Election Watch, Hyderabad
--
M C Raj
REDS, REDS Road
Shanthinagar
Tumkur 572102
Karnataka, India
Phone: ++91-816-2277026
Fax: ++91-816-2272515
Mobile: ++9845144893
Email for electoral reforms: ceri.reds@gmail.com
Email for REDS: jyothi.dalitreds@gmail.com
--
Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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