When the prime minister released the state of the Panchayat report in April this year, a critical chapter on government’s failure over implementation of Panchayat (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996 (PESA) was missing.

After maintaining silence over the missing chapter that said how the PESA, which is meant for the tribal areas that the Maoists have seized, has been violated consistently, for three months, the government was forced to speak up in the Parliament on Tuesday.

According the rural development minster CP Joshi the chapter didn’t conform to the MoU signed between the government and Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), the body that compiled the report. “The chapter on PESA was not included in view of the fact that the contents of the chapter were not found as the memorandum of understanding between the government and IRMA,” Joshi informed the Rajya Sabha in reply to a question.

As lame an excuse as it sounds, it belies government’s brazen attempt at blocking out a report that is critical of its performance and exposes its failure in taking governance at the grass root level.

‘How could the report been critical of the very government that sponsored it?’ babus in the rural development ministry would have argued.

The report describes how constitutional provisions like the Fifth Schedule, meant specifically for the tribal areas, have been completely bypassed. How not one single Governor of nine states having the Scheduled Areas has ever fulfill his or her constitutional responsibility in protecting the tribals’ interest in all the 60 years! It says by way of its concluding remark: “A decade-and-half on, however, its (PESA’s) promise of self-governance has a long way to go, even as the tribal communities grapple with intensifying challenges and conflicts, against the backdrop of liberalization.”