By Avner Pariat
These are testing times. Times when we as people are confronted by a lot of hard decisions and overwhelming cynicism. These are election times. The entire circus has come to town. There is music, tomfoolery, drinking, but not much earnest joy from anyone looking on from the outside. Instead, all this noise and craziness serves to depress one who is all too familiar with the way things work in our state. This “sacred” time that comes only once in 5 years, which should serve to raise hopes for change, bring with it the tedium of routine and a herd compliance. But this is the easy way out. Our deplorable politico-economic situation is compounded by our lack of critical assessment. This is where the middle class Shillong citizens are to be squarely blamed. In all our pomp and parade of being this and being that, on the national and international stages, the people of Shillong have forgotten their RESPONSIBILITY to people less fortunate than themselves. These are the same people who swear by some derivative of spirituality, mind you; these are the same loud people who have no opinion outside American/European manufactured opinions. What type of mentality is this that allows for aid to animals before our fellow human beings? True, one cannot simply help everyone in need because there are so many people who are poor, diseased and holding on BUT that is why they fail at being critics of our system. Let us admit one thing. That we can merely write and read English and are only marginally better than our fellows from the countryside, that we have used this advantage to make ourselves rich and that for the most part our knowledge is either poor or warped. Our criterion in this regard is low because we never came to it through thought but through mimicry. Acting European – speaking like the masters, sitting in the masters’ chairs, dressing up in the masters’ clothes – we have, in turn, colonised our own people after the departure of the British.
Why is it that the people have to suffer when the Indian government launches welfare scheme after welfare scheme? Why do they still have nothing when there are supposedly provisions made to take care of them? Go out, help people as a social worker but sooner or later you will be confronted by the truth of the matter -that we have been cheated. Our politicians and our officers and our police men and all our rulers have lied to us. They have told us time and again that our common good is their desire and their immediate concern. We have never really believed this, I am sure, but we accepted it and thought that they wouldn’t do much harm, dressed in their suits and driving in their squad cars, we humoured them perhaps. O how bitterly we have got that wrong! We have let them rule for us, yes, but most dangerously we have let them think for us. Their narratives have somehow become our own aspirations. Like many of our devoted and doting parents who want their children to grow up and join the civil services. I recently met a government official from the Election Commission to ask about clause 49(o) and not only was he in denial about the duties of his office, he was also rude and boorish. He kept on talking about how it was all society’s fault and I have to question the ability of any officer who thinks that he is not a member of society. Parents, get your children to think first, get them to become members of society. They will not die if they don’t become officers. They might, in fact, live more fulfilling lives.
What is our ethical response now to this immense corruption and abuse of power? Do you simply shut in like a turtle or do you plan, organise and undermine their control in your day-to-day life? It all starts with this happy realisation: that they are mortals not gods, that we are many and they are few. Friends, start with destabilising their roles. Throw out the spinelessness and the fake smiles. Start with accepting the fact that they are our workers, they are to serve us, not us them. We must struggle for this. Though I say this, I have to admit that almost all of Shillong bourgeoisie society is compromised. Shillong is happy to bow, fawn and humble itself before these people. Many of its residents are all on the parole of the higher-ups. In the desire to be comfortable economically, Shillong has sold out. The government in cahoots with the political parties have managed to maintain silence in this classroom. The type of control they exert is no joke and not easily understood at first glance. By regulating certain key areas like employment, education, information they have essentially held us at ransom. Even welfare programmes like the NREGS serve in one way to consolidate control by the bureaucracy. By sharing wealth with the village elites you create accomplices, and thus you feel safer as you loot and plunder. The more hands, the lesser the blame. Once corruption was a fairly simple process but now it is widespread and deep. Welfare programmes are now re-launched as coming directly from Chief Minister or MLA not as the INALIENABLE right of the people.
The legislators have tried very hard to make everything seem fine on the surface. They commission roads and lay down pipes and call this development. There is more money now in infrastructure than in simple resource extraction. Who are the people who get the contracts? How are they related or associated with our dear friends in the government? Mukul Sangma has an Earth Mover TNT, why would a layperson need one? I hear hiring out earthmovers cost Rs 8000 per hour and that shows that yet again it is all about personal investment. This is the other form of corruption, the systemic flaw. Ministers, officers are free to openly pursue business aspirations that are unethical and exploiting. They now know the ways of Finance Capital from their Marwari friends. The Centre stupidly sends millions and demands no accountability. The whole system is based on one of injustice and justification of that injustice. And it is not just the (outwardly) political class either, even now, in Shillong there are some people who make astronomical salaries and justify it saying they deserve it. Ex IAS, Ex ministers, so-called consultants, singers and pseudo-artists demand huge amounts (2 lakhs a month so on) in our economy where on average salaries are less than Rs 10000. I am sorry if 1 lakh a month is too little, try living like other people for a while; people in Polo, Nongmynsong, people in the villages. The only people who deserve that money are the working class: the farmers, carpenters, labourers, domestic workers; men and women whose bodies reel and twist under the load, men and women who face pain and thanklessness.
The struggle then will not be earth-shattering (or earth-moving) unless it is raised amongst the rural poor. Its targets must be the high and mighty of this land. Once we bring those down, we have a clear path. And to my friends who are very convinced that nothing will change I have one word – hope. While we live we must hold on to it; without being simply dreamers or escapists, we must hope and resist. Let them corrupt now, let them flaunt the law. We will not forget their crimes and what is the people’s right will return to the people. It will not matter if they are 80 plus, we will remember their crimes against the people. We too can ascend as they did and then, hold them accountable. We will not rest until this happens.