By Patricia Mukhim
When it comes to politics there is a never a dull moment here in Meghalaya. There are as many contenders to the chief minister’s chair as there are legislators. We are a tribal state and therefore not used to the hierarchy that rules the rest of India where political seniors have first claim to the top slot. Here we are all first among equals and that means that every MLA has the right to ride the horse of ambition even if he does not know where the destination lies or doesn’t’ find a horse worth riding! Meghalaya has many firsts to its credit but none for the right reasons. But, perhaps for the first time ever, we saw a group of four ministers who were itching for a change of guard being unceremoniously dropped and others being accommodated in their place. That was a lesson that needed to be learnt!
The incident was a swift, incisive operation that had the endorsement of the Congress High Command’s, high priestess herself, Ms Sonia Gandhi. Perhaps the lady had had enough of our bickering and the demand on her time to sort out the mess in Meghalaya when she has other better things to tend to in the UPA-2. So she decided it was time to clip the wings of over-ambitious legislators. Good for her! Sonia Gandhi is not the type to be polite. She gets her briefing on a situation in a particular state and takes a call without having to explain herself to anyone. She has that aura which comes from being inscrutable and not easily available to party acolytes. Founded by a foreigner, AO Hume, the Congress also does best in the hands of a foreigner, albeit one who claims her Indianness by virtue of having married into India’s most powerful political family.
The last time one saw Sonia Gandhi’s decisive stance was when she asked the benign Mr JD Rymbai to step down as chief minister, and to allow DD Lapang to step in. There was no explanation, no regrets and no remorse whatsoever in that decision. It was a swift, painless and emotionless operation conducted with the clinical precision of a mastermind. Mr Rymbai was so stunned he could not even talk back. It made no difference anyway. She would not have listened or retracted.
It would only have made him feel smaller. That is why I always wonder why our so-called “Rangbah” who strut the political space of Meghalaya with such pride and arrogance just allow their big ego to be punctured once they stand before the Congress matriarch. Surely there is some DNA fault here!
And yet, is there a choice? Have the regional parties done better? Mr Paul Lyngdoh had written in his article that the Delhi Durbar is alive and kicking and the Congress party in Meghalaya is run by that Durbar. There is no denying that fact at all. If you are a Congressman you cannot also claim to be a proud tribal. It’s one identity or the other. You cannot be both. A proud tribal would not go to settle disputes before a woman in New Delhi. They would not be hankering to meet her and be told to wait for weeks before they can get an audience with her. Is there anyone in this country who is so powerful? And as far as running the Congress party is concerned, Ms Gandhi is above all the laws of this land. No RTI can move her. No Lok Pal Bill can touch her. There is no taint of corruption against her because she does not do things. She gets them done by so many of her minions. This article is not an indictment on Sonia Gandhi. The lady has proved her leadership capabilities and more. If not for her the Congress would have been in smithereens with internal strife. The Congress might never have been in the driving seat in the UPA -1 and now the UPA-2. Sonia Gandhi therefore has what it takes to lead this country, not upfront, but from behind the scenes. And what an obedient man she has in the person of Manmohan Singh. He has no ambition. Kingship is thrust upon him. He does Sonia’s bidding without any regrets. This is an arrangement that suits all. If there is any loud mouthed Congressman who dares to dissent, he is quickly put in his place and his mouth is zipped. That’s how dissent is quashed in the Congress. So this article is a chastisement of our own Congress legislators for having lost their dignity and self esteem. Is it not possible to show some spine and to tell the Congress party that Khasi democracy (or half democracy) precedes Indian democracy? But then leadership change is never about democracy is it? It’s about how much money the chair is worth and how the bulk of that money has to come to the minister’s pocket. It’s as plain and simple as that! Yet it is also true that outside the Congress party there is not even a semblance of political discipline. Everyone in Meghalaya’ political firmament is a leader. And why not? But parliamentary democracy demands that the leaders choose the best from among them to run the affairs of the state. There is no compromise on that! And this precisely is our problem! Recently a study conducted by a team of economists led by Bibek Debroy found that political instability took a bigger toll on states than corruption. This has to be true especially of Meghalaya although the economists panned out into the bigger states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, UP and Tamilnadu. The political instability in Andhra Pradesh has resulted in three of the most prominent business houses shifting base outside India, the study found. In Meghalaya we are yet to come across a business house or company of repute finding a foothold in the State. The reason is not unknown. A good business house would want to operate in a climate of transparency and not go round in small circles trying to get clearance for a million things from that funny institution called the ‘Single Window Agency’ which is the licence permit raj in a new avatar. It takes a while before anyone wishing to start an industry can get past this barricade. Good, credible business houses do not want to do the rounds of ministers’ houses to get clearance for an authentic project. Only fly-by-night operators do that!
One must commend Lafarge for sticking on despite the blow hot blow cold attitude of the Government of Meghalaya and its inconsistent population who do not actually know what they want. We all know development extracts a cost. But that cost has to come from the corporate social responsibility (CSR) component of the company which does business. Now if the company already has to pay under the table to get a project, why should it also pay money upfront as well? But in Meghalaya this has been the story. In fact governments have been toppled in the past because some powerful companies could not get their way. Even the recent attempted toppling game has a business angle to it. Somehow the doctor who runs our state has more political acumen than many give him credit for. He was not flustered by the storm. On the contrary he weathered the storm with incredible tact and grit.
We are well aware that many of our leading politicians and bureaucrats have built their empires with money they have cornered from the business lobby. Whether it is the PHE, Health, PWD or Urban Affairs, they have succeeded in milking these departments; the people be damned. And they have succeeded in doing so because of the climate of political instability and expediency. Each minister has behaved like a buccaneer, ready to loot and scoot. After the department is taken over by someone else, that person finds only empty coffers. And there is no system of accountability whatsoever. So it is ‘chalta hai’ until the next annual plan and the next minister also repeats the rigmarole.
Having seen this political drama for well over two decades I am sure all of us are ready for a bit of stability and the spin-offs that steadiness could bring as against the diminishing returns of instability. Let’s have one chief minister who is answerable to the people at the end of a five year term rather than a system of passing the buck because no one has been around long enough to take the blame! (The writer can be contacted at [email protected])