By Patricia Mukhim
The other day a media colleague from Delhi who writes for a leading newspaper asked me which faith Purno Sangma belongs to. I replied that he was a good, practising Catholic. He replied back ‘lol.’ For the uninitiated ‘lol’ stands for ‘laugh out loud,’ in SMS lingo! I asked him what’s so humorous about my answer. He said, “PAS has lost it. Now his National Peoples’ Party (NPP) which also includes a big chunk of Dalits etc is supporting Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate. What’s he thinking?” I told the scribe to ask PAS that. With due respect to Conrad Sangma and his brother James whose political acumen I value and who I believe are the future leaders of Meghalaya, I really wish they had the liberty to chalk out their own political fortunes and did not have to turn politics into some sort of a family tea party. Both legislators are intelligent adults so they should be allowed to think beyond what their father wishes them to. After all, parents are not sages. Nor are they the repository of all wisdom. And age does catch up and make the elderly stray into areas they would not otherwise have done at the peak of their lives. Why should Conrad and James continue to pay the price of their father’s follies? It’s therefore a clarion call for elderly politicians to retire.
Look at Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. Throughout the four year tenure of UPA-2 he has hardly spoken except to defend FDI in retail or some such scam in the Government. We have not heard words of wisdom or encouragement except a pedantic drawl that money does not grow on trees. As if we did not know that! Increasingly he seems to have taken a vow of silence. Everyone in Delhi feels that the young Turks from the UPA lost an opportunity to show their leadership potential when they failed to address the protestors at Jantar Mantar. It was a great opportunity for Rahul Gandhi to express solidarity with young India in the whole sordid gang-rape case. His presence would have quelled the righteous anger of the young people in this country. But the Nehru-Gandhi scion is so far removed from people that their pain and suffering does not resonate with the dynasty anymore. Who are Rahul Gandhi and his colleagues in the Congress representing when they cannot even face a crowd that had gathered spontaneously? Rahul has for so long spoken only to orchestrated crowds of Congress acolytes put together by his followers. To that extent this country is completely leaderless today! And one dreads to think of 2014 and what will happen then, for all other parties, including the BJP-NDA are equally floundering.
Coming back to Meghalaya, now that the Congress party has finally decided who to field where, things are shaping up better. Congress opponents now know how to move forward. I am not sure how the NPP will do in Garo Hills but I have strong doubts that they will win even six seats. That’s a journalistic, not a political prediction. And contrary to what Conrad and James might believe this forecast is not based on prejudice or bad political calculations. I wonder if Congress rebels like Saleng Sangma would want to join the NPP. Joining the NPP now means declaring an open feud with the Congress. It would have made sense if the combined anti-Congress opposition were to win enough seats to form a Government in Feb-March 2013. We saw that happening in 2008. But a Congress out of power is a predator which would continually prey on those with weaker consciences. And as much as many (like PA Sangma and his strong supporters) would wish to see that happening, it is a rare possibility. In that case it is safer not to be in the NPP because I cannot foresee an NPP-Congress combine as long as Dr Mukul Sangma is calling the shots here. And now after PAS had proclaimed loudly and nationally that he supports Modi as PM, I am sure that even the little goodwill he enjoys here is also fast turning into dissonance. Sometimes, PAS reminds me of a moth that rushes to a flame to self destruct itself.
But having said that, we never know how Indian politics will play out post 2014 although even the best political pundits foresee a return of the UPA. At best we can safely predict what is likely to be the fate of Meghalaya’s politics after the 2013 elections. But even here if my predictions go wrong, I am always ready to eat humble pie. After touring some constituencies beyond Shillong to gauge the minds of voters, one learnt that political parties do make a difference. My tour was at a time when not all Congress candidates had got their tickets. One could see frustration writ large on peoples’ faces as they waited for their candidate to get the Congress ticket. One realises that the Congress party has made inroads into many of Meghalaya’s rural landscapes. People were on tenterhooks hoping that the candidate they support gets the Congress ticket. Some found it strange that the Party would take so long to decide the names of candidates after the Block Congress and some of the main supporters have thrown their weight behind a particular candidate. When asked why they wanted their candidate to get the Congress ticket and that if they wanted to support a candidate they should do so irrespective of whether he is from the Congress or contests as an Independent, they shot back that formerly that constituency was represented by a Congress candidate hence they wanted that to continue. They also said they had joined the Congress party in droves in the past and felt uneasy about voting a non-Congress candidate. Even non-Congress voters said they were inclined to vote a Congress candidate knowing full well that he would remain in that camp for at least five years. There were others who argued that voting someone from the UDP is purely a personal choice but not a good political choice since after the elections the UDP would be the first to offer the olive branch to the Congress to work out a power sharing formula. So the present election ploy of the UDP to lambast the Congress party really does not cut much ice with voters. This is not my perspective, in case friends like Jemino Mawthoh think I have become a Congress PR person. This is a reality which the UDP needs to internalise. The concept of Seng Riewlum, ieid Ri. ieid Jaitbynriew (Regional parties being more patriotic) is now only a faint memory, more so after the Mining Policy that is so patently anti-people and anti-environment was thrust upon the people of Meghalaya.
There are of course constituencies where personalities are bigger than parties such as Nongkrem where the firebrand Ardent, true to his name is shifting loyalties to the HSPDP. And take my word for it, Ardent is returning in 2013. The people of Meghalaya need leaders like him who kick up a storm in the Assembly (like Conrad and James do). Ardent’s change of heart was imminent. We guessed as much after he made common cause with HSPDP leaders at Langpih and created a furore there. We also calculated that as a real possibility after the KHNAM merged with the UDP and Paul Lyngdoh its leader was made the Working President of the UDP. For Ardent this was a bitter pill to swallow. He and Paul might have been fire-brand youth leaders of interest and pressure groups ten years ago but their ideologies were sharply divided even then.
One of the ills of the Congress is to not give people a choice to elect or select their candidates. The Block Congress is hardly the voice of the constituency. There are so many constituencies such as Jowai etc which clearly have jaded, non-performing leaders. The Congress should have had the guts to groom new leaders from such constituencies instead of making them permanent pocket boroughs of the elderly, some of whom cannot remember names and people beyond ten minutes because of senility. Remember we all have shelf lives! It hardly speaks well of the Congress Party when it continues to set up candidates who have lost their moorings. I only hope people have the wisdom and the guts to vote them out. That should teach the Congress a lesson in adversity. This paralysis of thought and policy starts with the UPA where Dr Manmohan Singh has now become the sphinx of India.
But the Congress is not the only party banking on dead wood. The HSPDP is no different. And neither is the UDP. Too few, ‘so-called leaders’ actually want to hang their boots even when the expiry dates are so clearly written on their faces. Not wanting to retire is a major illness. This is an illness that the people alone can help cure with their votes.
I am all for young leadership in 2013. We need fresh minds to drive a young India and a younger Meghalaya. Dr Mukul Sangma might be a young and dynamic thinker but what about his team? Are they able to run at his pace? Or think at the speed of light? Hardly! Too many creaking joints and dozing elders in the Assembly can make the government look pathetically geriatric. It’s time to change the equations, people!