By Paul Lyngdoh
The six-hour-long marathon No-confidence debate on the penultimate day of the recent State
Assembly session devoured an unsuspecting victim: a Private Member’s resolution I was to have moved on the need to reform the Meghalaya Public Service Commission. The fiery debate saw more than its fair share of frayed nerves, verbal calisthenics and I-am-more-loyal-than-thou declarations that by the end of it nobody was in a mood for another item on the platter. Sensing this, I did not insist on moving the resolution. I will, nonetheless, continue to raise my voice against what I see is an institution fast losing its relevance due to the thick shroud of opacity which has enveloped it over the years. I earnestly hope readers will join the campaign and would like to briefly state my case in these columns.
The State Public Service Commission is a constitutional body created under Article 315 of the Constitution. Its mandate is primarily to “conduct examinations for appointment to the services of the State”, besides tendering its advice “on all matters relating to methods of recruitment to civil services and for civil posts”, on the principles to be followed thereon, disciplinary matters and claims in respect of persons serving under a civil capacity (Art.320). Fair enough. The trouble, though, begins with Art. 316 which leaves the appointment of its members to the State Government without stipulating a rigorous and foolproof criteria for such appointment besides stating, rather baldly, that “as nearly as may be one-half of the members of every Public Service commission shall be persons who at the date of their respective appointments have held office for at least ten years under the Government of India or under the Government of a State”. This opened the Pandora’s box: members of the Commission are appointed not by dint of their merit, administrative experience or academic excellence, but sheer length of service and- though unstated- their unstinted political loyalty! It is an open secret that the MPSC today is a mini-coalition of every major political party in the state (without any major crisis to boot!). Under these circumstances, is it fair to expect that these worthies will not be subjected to extraneous pressures while discharging their duties? With the advent of the RTI Era in 2005, one would have had reason to hope that the smokescreen under which the MPSC functions would finally be lifted. It never happened. Taking shelter under Art. 8 of the RTI Act, 2005, the Commission invoked the principle of “Non-disclosure” as far as the following are concerned: (1) Identity of question setters and examiners (2) Evaluated answer scripts (3) Marks scored in the written/ viva voce test (4) Proceedings of the personal interview My argument is simple: this country is witnessing an upheaval of sorts in favour of transparency and probity in public life. Why should the Public Service Commissions be any excep-tion? Why should the above items be covered under the blanket of non-disclosure? For whose benefit? Do the honourable members of the State Assembly and the Commission want the general public to always interpret the words “Service Commission” the way it has come to be understood today? The answer, I believe, is an emphatic “No”. It would , therefore, only be in the fitness of things that appropriate steps are taken by the Cabinet to refurbish this edifice of public service in tune with the spirit of the times- the zeitgeist of an awakened India- before it loses its last remnant of credibility! Is Dr. Mukul Sangma ready to emulate the example of Hercules and clean the putrid Augean stables which the MPSC has become ?
A TALE OF TWO SOCIETIES
A brief sojourn in Goa last week was an eye-opener of sorts. Despite the obvious differences between the cultures and ethos of Goa and Meghalaya, I could discern certain affinities. There is, for instance, the deep-seated fear of the “outsider” snatching away the land and other resources of the children of the soil. Maharashtrians and North Indians apart (they control much of the economic activities), there is the Russian element that the Goanese have to contend with. Our driver (a sworn critic of the Congress and an unaba-shed BJP supp-orter) felt that there was no way the Russian land mafia could be controlled as long as their narcotics trade remains as lucrative as it is today. And they are politically well connected. Like us, ethnic Goanese are averse to manual and menial labour and are over-fond of their feni (that sure rings a bell of familiarity, all right?) Then there is the mining war threatening to snowball into a major street battle between two opposite camps, the pro-mining lobby and the environmentalists.
A day before our arrival, there was a one-man Commission hearing the two sides and it soon degenerated into a free-for-all. The illegal mining business is estimated to be worth over ten thousand crore rupees and every politician seems to have a pie in it. It reminds me of the ruckus that is rocking the JHADC today. And, yes, the enchanting beaches of Goa and Meghalaya’s pine-scented hills are amongst God’s finest masterpieces. But the irony cannot be missed: while tourism has assured the livelihood of thousands in Goa, our pre-historic infrastructure, coupled with the total failure of the PWD and Home (Police) Departments to make a journey along the Guwahati-Shillong Road even remotely tolerable, has ensured that Tourism festivals in Shillong, or anywhere in Meghalaya for that matter, are merely a good excuse for outings and drunkenness for “local tourists” only!
HARMONY MUSINGS
This year’s Get-together for Harmony, organized by the Central Puja Committee, Meghalaya, was a watershed: the presence of Vice-President Ansari as the chief Guest. The ” harmony” message was crystal-clear: a Muslim VVIP at a largely Hindu gathering in a Christian-dominated state. All of this in the presence of a galaxy of religious heads. But the moments of disharmony were jarring and certainly avoidable. The overbearing Protocol Officer accompanying the Vice-President gave menacing, dirty looks when the MC, Naba Bhattacharjee, requested the Chief guest to read out the names of certain award winners . It was as though the MC was committing first-rate sacrilege. Next, a member of the CPC was seen carrying a tray load of water glasses but was stopped by a member of the VVIP entourage whose body language seemed to suggest that the poor fellow was out to poison the dignitaries on the dais. Ironically, this was when Governor Moosaharry was delivering a riveting address on the thirst for divinity in all of us, likening it to a thirst for water!
AND THE BAMBOOS TELL THEIR TALE
THE obscene security blanket thrown all over the city during the two-day VVIP visit was stifling and left many inconvenienced. The only good thing that came out of the arrangements were the new, much-needed helmets for our traffic cops. But the bamboo barricades looked ridiculous and hemmed in pedestrians at several points. They only served to reinforce the divide between Delhi’s mighty rulers and puzzled Shillongites. I was reminded of Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih’s lines from, ‘When the Prime Minister Visits Shillong the Bamboos Watch in Silence’: “ When the Prime Minister planned a visit to the/ city bamboo poles sprang up from pavement/ like a welcoming Committee. But when he came/ he was/ Only the strident sounds of sirens/ Like warnings in wartime bombings/The bamboos watched in silence”.
Incidentally, Kynpham Nongkynrih’s, ‘The yearning of Seeds’, published by Harper Collins, was released a week earlier at a gathering in Shillong. It is a highly readable, eclectic collection of his finest work and I would recommend it to all lovers of genuine poetry.
The gentleman was Chairman of the Purchase Board in a certain department. I had an acquaintance who wanted me to find out if everything was “above board” and transparent so that he could decide whether to participate in a particular bid. So I made the call and asked him. “Above board? No, no. Nothing and no one here is above board. The Board is above everything and everyone”!