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Tribal govt in Bihar beats official one hollow

Akhileshwar Singh in Patna

Though the Naxalite-run parallel government in various parts of Bihar has earned itself a bad name, another 'popular government', established to aid the development of its citizens, has not.

The 'government', set up in the tribal villages of Bishnupur block of Gumla district, takes no help from the police or the judiciary. They have not revolted against the order either, just worked a way around its myriad inefficiencies.

Those who fashioned the government based it on Mahatma Gandhi's concept of 'Ram Rajya', 'Tinsimani' being the tribal version of it. The system was set up to address the problem of 'non-administration' in the state, particularly in tribal-dominated areas. It provides for a prime minister with nine ministers in his 'Union council'.

To enforce its rulings, the government has its own police force, the Dharti Raksha Wahini, (Land Protection Force). And the premier of the government which lasts three years -- currently Dugma Oraon -- picks his own cabinet. The next government is formed only after an election is which 5,000 tribals, who have been given the right to vote, participate.

The other ministers are Bandhnu Oraon (defence), Arjun Oraon (information and broadcasting), Rajkiran Munda (law), Hiramani Oraon (social welfare), Bhiku Oraon (mines), Madhav Oraon (planning), Chitharu Oraon (governor) and Ashok Bhagat (president).

The 'government' holds 'Parliament' three days every March under the banyan tree of the Champa Toli village. All 60 MPs take stock of the government's achievements and frame new policies.

Punishment is usually through fines for the accused, awards to the 'informer'. One of the current topics concerning the LPF is the illegal felling of forest trees.

According to Bhikhari Oraon, "We have now stopped going to either police stations or courts. Our own police is capable of solving any theft case."

He and others like him say the Tinsimani set-up has also brought about positive changes in the attitude of state government employees in Patna, an unexpected bonus. Already, teachers of schools run by the Bihar government do not play truant, nurses at the primary health centres have become more regular, and forest officials have become less corrupt.

It is the tribals's growing awareness of their rights, thanks again to the LPF's efforts, that has made the government officials go easy.

The Tinsimani 'constitution' provides for a small tax to keep the 'government' going -- one per cent of the salary of every government employee. If a 'citizen' fails to pay, the Tinsimani government will withdraw his 'citizenship', leaving him at the mercy of the official forces. The Tinsimani set-up also earns through auctioning wood from under its jurisdiction and the money collected as fines from guilty 'citizens'.

It wasn't easy cobbling together such an authority. It was a result of the efforts of 'governor' Chitharu Oraon, popularly known as Chitharu Guru.

The idea came to him after he lost his 32 acres of land to an aristocrat of Ratna who did not return it despite a court order; the concerned authority, apparently, was looking the other way. Sick of the system, a frustrated Chitharu Oraon was sitting before the statue of his diety Jatra Bhagat, when the idea of a peaceful parallel government came to him. "I thought it a message from god."

Chitharu Oraon visited several villages propounding the idea. He had some trouble first convincing the prime-minister-to-be Jaimangal Oraon. And the duo used Mahatma Gandhi's advocacy of self-rule in every village to fashion the Tinsimani 'government.'

First contacted by Rediff On The NeT, Jaimangal Oraon said he had better things to spend his time on than idle talk. Pressed, he said he was in the right frame of mind when Chitharu Oraon met him because he found "funds allotted by the state government for developmental works were being looted by corrupt officials and middleman".

And thus does every revolution begin.

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