By HH Mohrmen
The caption for this article is borrowed from Nehru’s speech on the occasion of India’s independence. He started his speech with the words ‘Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny…’ With due apologies to Panditji, I will rephrase it to “Three decades ago the people of Jowai embarked on the journey with Dr. RC Laloo in their tryst with destiny.” Wiki.answers.com; defines the meaning of the phrase as ‘when all other options are sealed one has to resign and submit oneself to destiny.’ Another online page defines the phrase as ‘the appointment with destiny.’
In 1983 Dr RC Laloo emerged in the political scenario of Jowai as an educated young man. It took the upstart politician three decades to become the Deputy Chief Minister of the state. From 1983 till 2008, he represented Jowai for four terms except for a gap of 10 years gap (1998 & 2003) when Sing Mulieh was elected MLA. Laloo won the first three terms consecutively. Jowai constituency has re-elected him this time and the term beginning 2013 is also the silver jubilee term when RC Laloo completes 25 years of representing Jowai constituency.
Since the hat-trick win from 1983 to 1993, Laloo’s main development planks have been road construction, building community halls and distributing grants to FBOs and NGOs. In 2008 he was re-elected on the promise of easing traffic congestion in Jowai and to provide employment for young people. He initiated the construction of new roads but realized that the promise of providing employment is not as easy as he thought it was. During his last election campaign, like Rip Van Winkle he woke up from his long slumber and talked about changing the mindset of the youth. What took him so long to realize that? Even after the lapse of 30 years he is yet to have a plan to create employment and will now spend the next 5 years changing mindsets!
The blame for the mess that the Jowai constituency is facing now is on both RC Laloo and Sing Mulieh but Laloo who is now going to represent the town for the fifth time would have to take more of the brickbats. It reminds me of the anecdote of how the Nobel prize was instituted. The story says that one fine morning while Alfred Nobel was reading the newspaper he saw inserted in the obituary column the announcement that Alfred Nobel the discoverer of dynamite was dead. The mistake did not worry him but it made him think whether he really wanted people to remember him as the discoverer of dynamite. Alfred decided that that was not what he wanted people to remember him for and instituted the Nobel Prize and the rest is history. After he had represented Jowai for over 20 years what will the people remember Laloo for? What has RC Laloo done that people of Jowai constituency would remember him for?
In the field of higher education, in 1983 there was only one college- the Jowai government college. After three decades, in addition there is just another missionary run college the Thomas Jones College. RC Laloo has done precious little in this sector other than to change the name of the then Jowai government college to Kiang Nangbah Government college. There are two skill development institutes in Jowai the ITI in Khliehtyrchi which has not seen much improvement and the World Bank sponsored Polytechnic which (thanks to the government) was in the news for all the wrong reasons.
It is a long cherished dream of the people of Jaintia hills to have a NEHU campus in the district for which a certain dorbar shnong had agreed to donate land for the same. Ironically the person who has one foot in the University and another in the government was not able (or rather not interested) in seeing that the dream is realized. A quarter of a century ago some intellectuals of Jaintia hills started the Khad Ar Daloi Law College and the District council has generously donated land for the cause. Again RC Laloo was the education minister of the state several times and this institute remains as it is with very little or no support from the government. Shillong is going to have two medical colleges, another one in Tura, an engineering college is now under construction in Sohra but Jowai has again missed the bus! Just before the election was announced a foundation stone for B. Ed College was laid. An elderly man remarked that the reintroduction of B. Ed College is like making a cage while the birds are still out in the wild.
Jowai Civil hospital the only government hospital has not seen much change in the last 3 decades. The entire Jaintia Hills does not even have a blood bank. For reasons not known, the health department refused to use the new building at Ialong village. The honourable MLA of Jowai also did not take much interest in the completion of the Umngot water supply scheme which hangs in the balance for more than five years now.
There is also no proper garbage disposal system in Jowai. Last year Jowai Municipal Board was in a financial crisis and when media persons asked him for his comments on the issue, RC Laloo refused to comment saying he had lost the election last time because of the JMB issue. That statement separated RC Laloo the politician from (what he could have been) Professor Laloo the statesman. He is afraid of losing the election and chose not to tell the truth or to do what he thinks is right. Now nobody knows his stand on the municipal issue and the town is growing rapidly with no proper waste management system in place.
Even if we credit the beautification of Syntu Ksiar to the Minister of Soil and Water Conservation, the construction is more of an aesthetic work akin to treating the symptom rather than the cause of the disease. With no proper garbage disposal mechanism in place, liquid and solid waste from the town upstream flows to the Myntdu and if Dr Laloo does not do anything immediately, Myntdu will go the Wah Umkhrah way and the beautification of Syntu Ksiar will go waste.
Now that he is the Deputy CM can Laloo bring changes to the Jowai constituency which he could not in 20 years? He is now 62 years old and if he would remain a teacher in the University he would be due to retire anytime. Not surprisingly he has run out of ideas. During his campaign he promised to complete the construction of Iawmusiang market, but everybody knows that the market is a subject under the District Council and not a state subject. There is no transparency and accountability on how he utilised funds from his MLA scheme as no report has ever been made and everybody knows why, especially after the incident at the office of the BDO Thadlaskein. He still indulges in the old way of getting votes by distributing grants from MLA LADS before the election. Some innovation in the way the grant is distributed is what is needed. One only needs to create a system where the beneficiaries would work together as a self help groups or Cooperative society to generate income. That would have made a huge difference. But RC Laloo is still a leader who prefers to give people fish rather than teaching them how to fish.
In the Sports and Youth department, Jowai has two sandy playgrounds the Jrisalein and the stadium. And again other than renaming the Jowai Stadium to Kiang Nangbah Stadium, RC Laloo has done very little in this area too.
The unplanned growth of the town is the main reason for the chronic traffic jam and there is no scope for developing the town anymore. Isn’t it time to think of a new, planned Jowai township? People in the know are of the opinion that the gentle landscape of Khliehtyrchi – Mukhla and may be till Ummulong would be a suitable area for the new township.
We all have seen how people’s memory of politicians fade into oblivion even while they are still alive, but Laloo has the full 5 years before him to make amends. People will not remember him for constructing roads and building community halls. And if he does not even do that then what are we paying him for as an MLA? Ultimately, in the tryst with destiny they shared with RC Laloo, people of Jowai will only remember the changes he introduced and not the number of times he was elected.