The Indian National Congress in Meghalaya or in the country has not been able to demonstrate its ability to spur its own resurgence. A Party that once ruled India but is now relegated to a pitiable position of not securing enough seats in the Lok Sabha to become the undisputed opposition party in 2014, seems to depend more on the BJP faltering rather than on its own ability to spruce itself up. Every day, Rahul Gandhi the Party Vice President issues statements that are at best amateurish. That he is an MP from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and is therefore equally responsible for the state of affairs there and not just his own constituency does not seem to occur to this proletarian politician. His visit to Gorakhpur on Saturday to BRD Medical College and Hospital where the latest death toll of children due to Japanese Encephalitis has touched 105, coincided with the visit of Yogi Adityanath the UP chief minister. As can be expected Rahul Gandhi’s objective of visiting the place was to score brownie points and put the Adityanath Government on notice. It could have been a more measured visit, aimed at getting a clear picture of this very unsettling situation. This is not the first time that BRD Medical College has seen such deaths. Children deaths have been a regular feature in UP with Gorakhpur being the highpoint, during the monsoons due to several reasons, but mainly because extremely filthy surroundings. Rahul Gandhi has conveniently forgotten that the Samajwadi Party with which he had a pre-election coalition in the Assembly elections held in March this year, was ruling UP between 2012 to 2017 and that blaming Yogi Adityanath who is in the driving seat only in the past five months, for a long standing problem, lacked punch. The BJP termed Rahul Gandhi’s visit a “picnic,” much to the chagrin of Congress workers.
In Meghalaya too, we see a similar situation. The Meghalaya Congress President and State Chief Minister have been reacting to what the BJP is doing or seeks to do. They have however not spelt out their own action plan for 2018. The state of the roads in Meghalaya today should make them squirm. They should reflect on their own acts of omission and commission instead of pointing fingers at the BJP or any other party, for, Meghalaya is their oyster and has been for a long while and there’s no getting away from accountability for the downward plunge of this state. The present round of inaugurations and foundation stones are unlikely to cut much ice. Political parties that only react lack maturity and intellectual capital. Those that are proactive are busy at making their roadmaps without much cacophony.