Campus Notes
A student’s perspective
The slow pace of development of
Meghalaya in many aspects has
become a hot topic among students. The young are bothered that leaders and elected representatives are busy running after money and power and care less about the development of the state.
The ills of communalism, casteism and nepotism gradually become the necessity of politics, said one student of the Social Work Department, St Edmund’s College Sam Nonglait. “Nine five year plans have been completed. The tenth five year plan is nearly ending and the eleventh one is in the anvil, yet development is not up to the mark”, he observed.
Many ills prevail in our state because our leaders have forgotten their moral and ethical duties towards the state and have only but one motto i.e. to grab power and earn money by hook or by crook, Sam said.
Sam reminded of Former Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi’s observation that out of every 100 rupees of development funds only 17 rupees actually reaches the people.The rest goes to the pockets of officials and politicians.
“In our state many people have lost faith in their leaders because they have played with the confidence of the public”, Sam observed.
As a student, Sam said most of the youths are moving out for higher education and settling there permanently.
“In a State like ours, where the public have become indifferent to the process of election which is the base of our democratic setup due to politics and politicians becoming unethical and immoral, the disastrous effect is palpable. This may paralyze the whole democratic fabric”, Sam asserted.
He however, said it is not appropriate to blame politicians alone as we the general public are also responsible to a great extent in making our leaders corrupt, unethical, and even goons. If people use their right to vote a representative who can be made accountable to the constituency in which he/she represents as well as the state, then we can hope for a change.
Meanwhile, stressing on the 2013 elections, Sam said the issue is heating up and people should be smart raise the standard of the coming elections by asking questions to their representatives when they go for their campaign. Any assurance given by candidates should not only accepted verbally but in black and white. “This will indeed set an example for the goons to think twice before contesting elections in future”, he said.
It is high time that we enforce a code of conduct to stem the rot where transparency in the functioning is urgently required, this student said while adding that responsible leaders, public, media can play a vital role in exposing various corrupt activities by our higher authorities.
To improve the pathetic condition of the state, people have to start becoming aware of their fundamental rights or else the future is doomed and we will suffer for our wrong judgment, Sam stated.
“The difference between genius and stupidity is genius has its limits.” Through this quotation, I wish to convey to the general mass that despite the indifferent attitude of our representative in our constituencies over the years, what makes us fall into the category of idiots is that we vote for those same people again and then repeat the whole blame game”, Sam decried. (Sam Nonglait is pursuing BSW from St Edmund’s College)