Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Of human strength, frailties and achievements

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Patricia Mukhim

Meghalaya lost two veteran politicians in the first week of March. Ms Miriam D Shira passed away on March 2 and PA Sangma on March 4. The two were political rivals and had many a public slanging match during election seasons. I mention Ms Shira because I was once part of the Congress campaign trail. During such election meetings PA Sangma would tear apart the regional parties’ hyperbolic attacks on the Congress party and their exaggerated claims that they alone can help conserve the culture and tradition of the tribals, while the Congress was a national party with an agenda to mainstream them. Miriam Shira remained a staunch regional party member as long as she was in active politics.

During the election season, Sangma used to be the star campaigner. He had the gift of the gab and villagers, starved of drama and action, would hang on to his every word. His greatest asset was his ready wit and ability to use humour to bring himself to the level of the commons. Unlike most politicians today who are somber and grave and take so long so form a sentence while speaking, Sangma was quick-witted and never boring. If he was under stress you could never make out. Purno Sangma had the uncanny ability to cancel out everything that a rival candidate would have said to the constituents. His ripostes were forceful and logical. Besides, he was so well accepted in Garo Hills in those times that there was no question of ever doubting his words.

Elections campaigns then as now also tend to veer towards the personal. And in those bad old days campaigns were followed by meals and spirits for those attracted to the bottle. People not only listened with rapt attention when Sangma spoke but they would clap and applaud. Never short on political skills, Sangma would send his people to listen to his rival’s election campaign and get the gist of what was said. He would then rebut point by point, especially what his arch-rivals had spoken. Everything that the earlier candidate had said, every claim asserted, every promise made would be erased if not deleted out of the mental slate of the voters. Such was the strategy adopted by this veteran politician.

I recall accompanying him and other leaders from Meghalaya to meet Rajiv Gandhi at Guwahati airport. That was 1991 the year Rajiv was killed. The former Prime Minister had come to Assam to campaign for the Lok Sabha polls but could not make it to Meghalaya because of his tight schedule. He wanted to convey his blessings to the two candidates – PA Sangma and PG Marbaniang and had prepared a text that he wanted circulated to the voters of Meghalaya. It was a hot and humid day and Sangma had had a beer to beat the heat. So instead of seating himself close to Rajiv he sat some distance away. Rajiv beckoned to him to come closer and asked why he was keeping distance. Sangma did not want Rajiv to get the whiff of the spirit he had downed but Rajiv was very perceptive. That was the lighter side of Sangma’s character. In fact I don’t know if other than his Doon friends, Rajiv was as close to any other Congressman as he was to PA Sangma who accompanied him to several locations for electioneering.

Indeed, Sangma had a special place in Rajiv’s heart and that is why people still wonder why he abandoned Sonia Gandhi. If anyone else had done it, it might not have been a surprise, but PA Sangma? Yet that is how history would record Sangma’s parting of ways with the Congress Party- a Party that groomed him and gave him pride of place; a party that recognized his minority status and gave him the space to prove himself in several ministries. Undoubtedly Sangma had both the political acumen to run his ministries and the administrative insights to drive those ministries in the direction he wanted to. Hence he was respected by the bureaucracy! His exploits in the Speaker’s Chair were legendary!

There were many in the Congress who wanted to oust out Sonia Gandhi because of their selfish ambitions. They hatched the plot and roped in Sangma because he was the easiest one to convince, ostensibly about the need to remove a person of foreign origin from leading the Congress party. Sangma was no match for the wily politicians of the mainland. He was transparent and would speak his mind. Others were not so naïve and knew that if the plot to remove Sonia failed they would be in the doghouse. So Sangma led the charge and it fell flat since many of those who said they would rally round him quietly backed out. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was born and the rest is history. I never really understood why Sangma became so bitter against the Nehru-Gandhi family.

When Agatha Sangma’s term in the Lok Sabha ended in 2014, I asked Conrad Sangma why he did not contest the MP elections instead of his father. After all, India needed a tectonic shift in policy planning and innovation because its youth population today is a mammoth 65% (below 35 years of age). Conrad replied that the region needed a leader with maturity and experience who could effectively engage with the BJP-led NDA Government. He was not wrong. The video clip of PA Sangma’s speech in Parliament (which is now widely circulated) rebuking the Modi Government for its targeted attacks on minorities and Christian churches is an example of what good, incisive and meaningful intervention in the Lok Sabha is all about. Sangma pointed out that many of the present crop of ministers are products of Christian institutions. He mentioned LK Advani and Power Minister, Piyush Goyal in particular, stating that Goyal is an alumnus of Don Bosco Matunga, (Mumbai). Sangma questioned the Ghar Wapasi programme of the RSS. He said Christian missionaries don’t convert people by putting a gun on their heads. Quoting Mother Teresa Sangma said, “Christian institutions do not convert. They only make people better human beings. A Hindu becomes a better Hindu; so too a Muslim.” This speech was delivered in typical Sangma style even while his colleagues listened with rapt attention. I cannot recall any other MP from the North East barring PD Rai of Sikkim who can deliver a flawless speech and hold the attention of fidgety, distracted parliamentarians.

Yet Sangma had his share of missed opportunities. The intent to contest the Presidential polls was rather impulsive and not well considered. There is such a thing as timing in politics and a planned execution of any project. This one certainly wasn’t. But Sangma did create a furore and he did make a political point. A point that the minorities of this country can no longer be shouted down or alienated; that the tribals are quite capable of leading the country if given a fair chance; a point that tribals can no longer be treated as second class citizens; that they can and should compete on a level playing field. This point is now being made in the JNU campus; it is a point that is reverberating from Hyderabad University to every corner of India. Perhaps, someday soon we will have a tribal from the North East as Prime Minister or President. That would be the day when PA Sangma would smile from his final abode. For now he must be having a verbal duel with Miriam Shira in that resting place ‘beyond the sunset’ as DD Lapang rightly observed.

So will Conrad Sangma now consider stepping into his father’s shoes? I think he should and he must… he has what it takes lead Meghalaya and the North East and to prove to this country that tribals have come into their own.

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