Elections to the Rajya Sabha are not exciting events. It is a foregone conclusion that whichever party runs the Government will succeed to send its candidate to the Upper House. After all it’s a numbers game and that’s the way it is played. These days there are more actors than real statesmen/women in the Upper House. Many don’t even attend the sessions. This time Meghalaya will be sending a woman for the first time to the Rajya Sabha. There is reason to celebrate this gender blender. First it’s a lady Home Minister in Meghalaya and now a lady in the Rajya Sabha to represent our hopes and aspirations at the national forum. Much before Meghalaya was created and even before India became independent the Khasi community elected Mavis Dunn as MLA from the Shillong reserved seat. She was, by then, a Graduate. She also got a Bachelors degree in Teaching and in Law (BA, BT, BL) from Calcutta University. It is a matter of pride to be represented by a woman of such stature. Several decades later all we can manage is a lady whose only credentials are her loyalty to the Congress party. In India, those in politics don’t seem to need education. That’s why our Constitution never set any educational qualifications for politicians. But things have changed phenomenally. By a system of elimination we vote out those we believe do not merit to represent us because even voters realise how complex things are today and how important it is to have leaders who are wise and can engage meaningfully in the August House. But that is not happening in Meghalaya. In the recently concluded state assembly election, one candidate who was elected is uneducated and can’t read or write English which is the language of transaction in the state Assembly and the Government. If the MLA is made minister we can only imagine how difficult it would be to cope with day to day governance; not to mention policy making.
In this country politics has trumped every vestige of human achievement. Politics dominates the academia and every institution that is of any worth. Education is politicised because teachers are appointed not on merit but as they say in Hindi on sifarish or string pulling. Those who can’t pull strings have already lost the race. Politics trashes every value system that schools, colleges, universities and churches teach and preach to us. But all that learning makes no sense. In the end politics wins. And politics has won over all other considerations in the Rajya Sabha election. We have to live with that!