By HH Mohrmen
Obviously, we owe the heading of this article to Robert Vadra, the one and the only son in law of Sonia Gandhi who in his own wisdom interpreted ‘aam aadmi’ to its literal Hindi meaning. Interestingly enough ‘aam aadmi’ is a general term used in political parlance to mean the common man/woman in India and the term is being used liberally by all the political parties in the country. Whenever the term ‘aam aadmi’ is used the image that comes to mind is a half naked farmer and women with a single piece sari which covers her entire body from head to toe. People with dark wrinkled skin and a frown on their faces looking with forlorn eyes towards a small, dry unproductive farmland they own. We must thank Robert for his ‘mango people in a banana republic’ statement.
What does the statement have to do with Meghalaya? Taking into consideration the election trend that is developing in the state, any observer worth his salt will be able to see that the mango people of the state are going to convert Meghalaya to a banana state. Call me pessimistic but one only needs to look at the names of the aspiring candidates which appear in the media to conclude that Meghalaya is heading towards becoming a state of chaos if not total self destruction.
Both the Garos and Khasi Pnar people of Meghalaya used to proudly claim that the tribes do not practice caste system. Yes, at least in the Khasi Pnar society there is no caste system but the tradition of class system is prevalent. Traditionally only selected clans in the raij or in the hima can be rulers; be it the king or the daloi. Again there is the priest clan for each raij; only a person from a certain clan can be a sangot or a publicist and the list is by no means exhaustive. Traditionally the priest is also the headman of the village (and he remains in office for life) and the tradition is still being practiced in Nongtalang but in villages like Yalong, the people have very recently done away with tradition and instituted a process of an elected headman with a fixed tenure.
In the contemporary Meghalaya we are again going back to the old tradition and taking class system to the assembly. If we go by the list of names of the candidates contesting the ensuing elections to the legislature, we find that most of the present MLAs are proposing the name(s) of their kith and kin to contest the coming election. We can start from the CM whose wife’s is also on the list of Congress candidates, then the Speaker is setting up his son David Nongrum from his erstwhile constituency and Don Massar has projected his wife as a candidate. Not to be left out from the race, the neo rich from Jaintia hills too have their candidates, Nehlang is pushing for his nephew Justine and Sniawbhalang for his elder brother Ngaitlang Dhar. Again this list is by no means exhaustive. And if all the politicians in the state are blessed with a big family like that of Purno Agitok Sangma, then they all bring their spouses and their kith and kin to the assembly. Very soon Meghalaya will be run by few families. And in a tribal society where clan system is deeply entrenched and people are always related to each other some way or the other (for instances Dr. R.C. Laloo is related to Dr. Adviser Pariong) and somebody will be related to someone, then running the state will certainly become a family business. The State’s issues will become family issues which can be decided over dinner at a dining table or the living room. So tell me if this is not a dangerous trend that we are heading towards.
People have reason to worry if the voting pattern of the society is taken into consideration. People vote on the basis of the various affinities they have, be it clan, regional, or kinship relation and now there is a trend to vote on the basis one’s religious affiliation (Parabangeit/paraniam) and no doubt people also vote for money too.
Money in elections is a tradition at least in Jaintia Hills. Since the office of the daloiship is for life the election to the office always involves buying votes. The daloi is not being paid a salary per se but a person who is voted to the office benefits from ‘ka rek dalloi’ which is an estate which includes paddy fields etc. that any person who holds office enjoys as long as he remains in the office.
The media is also not far behind when it comes to playing politics in the name of the aam aadmi. One needs to read the vernacular papers to be able see the truth. Everyday there will be a report of certain people expressing their support for one party or defecting to another party and the next day the news paper will have to carry another story which is contradictory to the last report. In the very first place I don’t see why the aam aadmi needs to know who is supporting whom and who has ditched whom. After all it is just a game that people at that level are playing isn’t it? The media person is playing politics by obviously having its own candidate to support. Or media is being used by the candidates to get undue publicity for the candidate in the press. The recent report by two premiere vernacular papers on the issue dated 20th October 2012, pertaining to the rally organized by the rich candidate to drum up support and to convince the High Command to allot the party ticket to him, is a case in point. The candidate has no basic education; not to mention formal education but thanks to the vernacular papers, he is going to create history in which for the first time the party will bypass the sitting MLA and give him ticket. Both the premiere Khasi dailies gave a half page report of the rally with two photographs. Discerning readers need to question why so much importance and space was given to the event? If people vote only on the basis of their affinities and on the basis of money, and we have a press which is not fair and ethical in what they are doing, then I think we have a dangerous concoction which can destroy this state in no time.
The most dangerous threat in the coming election is when reports become paid news or advertorials and candidates pay for the news. Truth will then be sacrificed at the altar of fair and just reporting.
The trend of rich people with less or no formal education joining politics is growing and the question is why? I don’t buy the argument that rich people join politics because they want to do good to the people or they want to pay back to people the ‘blessings?’ they have been bestowed. Rich people join politics because they want power and power means more money and almost every party has rich and semi literate candidate on their list. Sadly, rich people are buying their way to the assembly and now they even try to get their near and dear ones on board and with the money they have they can buy anything like buying mangoes in the market; be it the press, the people or anything that they come across on their way to the august house. If this trend continues where everybody is up for sale to the highest bidder from the aam aadmi to the press then Meghalaya is on the way to becoming a banana state.