By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Chandigarh : Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announces that he wants to see Haryana as India’s number one state, launches a women’s university, appoints two women chief secretaries and claims to be getting rid of crime. But what about the regressive ‘khap panchayats’ (caste village councils) in this otherwise progressive scenario?
In recent years, these ‘khap panchayats’ in Haryana’s rural areas have tried to separate legally married couples, got some of them brutally killed, snatched a six-day-old infant from his parents and ostracised several families for not falling in line with their diktats.
Having been a practicing lawyer before he took over as chief minister in March 2005, Hooda surely cannot brush the illegal actions of these caste councils under the carpet. As a politician he has so far refrained from openly criticising the illegal actions of these caste councils for fear of losing votes and has even tried to avoid controversy saying that they have social sanction.
As a legal professional though, Hooda should know that these village councils are an extra-constitutional mechanism and have no sanctity in law to get their decisions enforced.
The latest inhuman ruling of a village council in Karnal district, ordering that a six-day-old infant be snatched from its parents because both belonged to the same ‘gotra’, or lineage, has once again exposed the functioning of such bodies. After refusing to react for five days, the authorities finally recovered the infant Sunday and restored it to its parents.
The village council had declared that the couple, Pawan and Kavita, belonged to the same lineage and should live separately as they were brother and sister.
The entire panchayat has now been booked for kidnapping and illegal confinement.
The couple may have reunited now but they fear for their lives as village councils are known to be vindictive.
The criminal angle in getting the panchayats’ decisions enforced was seen in June this year when a young couple, Manoj (23) and Babli (19), were brutally murdered for having married in the same gotra in Karoran village near Kaithal town, 130 km from here.
That the couple was under police protection on orders given by the Punjab and Haryana High Court did not help save their lives. Manoj’s distraught family has been ostracised by the village community and lives in fear despite the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) extending help to them.
Two years earlier, a Rathi village council in Asanda village in Jhajjar district asked a couple, Sonia and Rampal – who had been married for over a year – to renounce their marriage and live as brother and sister as they were from the same lineage. The Punjab and Haryana High Court took strong exception to the matter and ordered the state government to ensure protection to the couple.
There have been over a dozen cases in the last three years in which illegal village councils have tried to separate legally married couples and declared their families outcasts for not toeing the line.
The village councils follow no legal principles. Everything depends on the male-dominated council. Women are not even allowed to participate in their proceedings. No one speaks against them for fear of being excommunicated from village society.
Even the state government or politicians refuse to seek a ban on these village councils for fear of annoying leaders, especially the dominant Jat farming community, and losing votes.
Last year, the high court here took up a petition seeking to restrain the village councils from their illegal activities. Despite that, the councils continue to act on their own terms and whims.