This is obviously a ploy to create a glass ceiling at the panchayat level and disenfranchise the poor and the deprived, an overwhelming part of the population of Haryana. The new legislation also flies in the face of the fact that our election law—up to parliamentary elections—has no literacy qualification clause (a casual search will show that many legislators would have to absent themselves if Khattar’s qualification were to be imposed). In India, the question of literacy as a qualification for membership of the state legislatures and Parliament was hotly debated in the Constituent Assembly. Stalwarts like India’s first president, Dr Rajendra Prasad, was in favour of some minimum qualification but Prime Minister Nehru rejected it, caustically describing such an idea as totally undemocratic. No one has since dared to put forward this undemocratic step in election law. Now to take up this step in Haryana, which in terms of economy and agricultural production is the envy of the nation, is insulting the dignity of the people of the state.