By Banlam K Lyngdoh
Of late, Congress legislators of all hues and feathers from your mother-in-law’s beloved ‘Meghalaya’ have been arriving at your doorstep in the national capital to update your benevolent self on the state of affairs in the State. Eh! I beg your pardon; I mean in the Party. As it appears, they have been narrating and counter-narrating tales of trust and of breach of trust, yarns of confidence and of lack of confidence, and sagas of heroism and sacrifice they have been showing and rendering for the sake of this tiny State and, without forgetting, for the sake of the Party. For people like me who are mere mortals watching the battle(s) of the gods and the goddesses at the very portals of the abode of the lady Zeus, it is all, at best, perplexing.
Based on past experiences where discontented and grumbling hounds bayed for each other’s blood and implored your judicious decision over whom to install on the shaky throne of Meghalaya, I am, in all my naive and ordinary plebeian sense, led to believe that the present tussle for power will prove to be just another story which is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing for people like me.
Madam, one thing is worth reminding. Every government in Meghalaya, like in all other States in the Country, is both democratically and popularly elected. Since the first Assembly Election, after your mother-in-law paid heed to our need for ethnic political self-assertion and lovingly designed and devised our political existence, the norm has always been so. But, Madam, do you think that because your great Party was instrumental in shaping our territory and in helping us realize our political fulfilment and destiny, do you think that because of this (no doubt great) contribution, your party men in this State are licensed to play with the people’s mandate? Does this fact supersede all other basic aspirations and elemental needs, social, economic and political (in a larger sense) that the people of Meghalaya may have for themselves? Are the Khasis, the Jaintias and the Garos a somewhat patched-up football for your mighty minions to kick and play around with one goalpost in your compound and another in Shillong or Tura as the case may be?
Our Congress men in the State, whose appetite for power is enormous and bottomless, recount stories of confidence and lack of confidence.
I am clueless as to whose confidence they have been shrieking of. We have a situation where Democracy is being undermined and mocked by the very agents and machineries whch have been entrusted to carry it out.
We are being ruled by a Congress-led Government. This shows that most, though not all, Meghalayans have placed their confidence and trust in the party. Sadly, for your little hilly monsters and ogres this is not enough. With due respect Madam, why is this? I can only say that this is a dreadful disease, this ever-renewed and endless thirst for power.
Every government in Meghalaya, like in all other States in the Country, is both democratically and popularly elected. Since the first Assembly Election, after your mother-in-law paid heed to our need for ethnic political self-assertion and lovingly designed and devised our political existence, the norm has always been so. But, Madam, do you think that because your great Party was instrumental in shaping our territory and in helping us realize our political fulfilment and destiny.
A simple citizen who still has faith in the virtues and certain allowable lapses of Democracy, I am dying to believe that this disease is neither chronic nor hereditary in your Congress-I family.
All I can hope is that the pain and anguish of simple electorates and citizens of the State will somehow be mitigated by your timely intervention and motherly authority over a bunch of irresponsible power-mongering children easily given to quarrelling and back-stabbing, intrigue and deceit. Berate them Madam. Spur them to be men and not cowardly toddlers who rush to your lap every time they are deprived of a lollypop. (The author is a senior teacher of Ramakrishna Mission School, Sohra)