By HH Mohrmen
A friend who is a professor in the University and a co-speaker at the brainstorming session on ILP organized by the Political department of the North Eastern Hills University, criticized the Chief Minister for spending much of his time in Delhi to convince the central government for more funds to the state when the state was burning. Why did the Chief Minister choose to rush to Delhi instead of trying to solve the burning issue in the state? Why is it so important to meet the personnel of the Finance ministry instead of addressing the issue at hand when every day the state is losing crores of money due to bandhs and road blocks called by the pressure groups? Is this a good economic sense? Isn’t this a classic case of penny wise pound foolish?
Of late there is a tendency among chief ministers to outdo each other in trying to bring more funds from the Central government to the state exchequer. This subtle competition among chief ministers to try and prove that they are better than their predecessors in terms of bringing more money for the state is a competition for a wrong goal because it is a case of missing the woods for the trees. There should be a healthy competition among the chief ministers to bring peace, progress and development in the state, not just for bringing money from the Centre. But now it looks like the benchmark for being a good chief minister is to bring more money to the state from the central government’s kitty.
The question is whether the role of the chief ministers of the states is merely to bring more funds to the state from the Finance Commission? May we ask when will this begging bowl syndrome end? As citizens of the state we are sorry that even after 40 years of existence Meghalaya still depends on the financial support from the central government. Are we not ashamed of being perpetual beggars from the central government?
A large part of our revenue goes down the drain because we have failed to check the leakage in revenue collection in the transport check gates or even in the Land Customs stations. Is there any effort to stop the leakage of resources? This column has exposed the leakage of revenue especially in the Dawki-Tamabil land custom where till now overloaded trucks export coal and limestone from this port to Bangladesh. Meghalaya could have saved crores of rupees if this was checked but the government chooses to turn a Nelson’s eye to what is going on.
We need a chief minister who can make the best use of his time and energy in making Meghalaya a state which can sustain itself without any outside support. The state needs a leader who can take this state to new heights, a state which can stand on its own feet. Meghalaya must strive to be at least in the middle ranks of the development list in the country and most importantly a state that we can all be proud of.
The manner in which the chief minister had tackled the ILP issue leaves much to be desired. In fact the chief minister’s problem solving style has only helped make the list of people who dislike him longer. Not that he is in the competition to be the most liked person in the state, but his handling or mishandling of the entire ILP issue will certainly backfire on the Congress especially in the ensuing MP elections. One thing that is obvious is that the Congress has already lost a large chunk of young voters. This will be a huge problem for the party. The chief minister’s mishandling of ILP has alienated him and his Government from the young people and the party will find it difficult or maybe even impossible to woo the young crowd to its fold again.
The only hope for the Congress is if the regional parties fail to come up with a consensus candidate for the Shillong parliamentary seat in the next MP election. If the regional parties can agree on a common candidate who can unite all the regional parties’ voters then the Congress will find it difficult or may be even impossible to fight a united regional force.
If the regional parties unite then it will be a repetition of another nursery rhyme which we loved to sing when we were kids and which is still taught to our children now. Talking about nursery rhymes I sometimes wonder why can’t they teach our kids new rhymes. But I now realize that these rhymes that kids still love to sing, like all the holy books, remain relevant to every generation. We only need to contextualize them to understand their message. So I came up with my own version of another nursery rhyme which is relevant to the context and it goes like this: “CM and Cong went up the hill to fetch a pail of water, CM fell down and broke his crown and Cong came tumbling after.” The Chief Minister’s misha-ndling of the influx issue will certainly cost the Congress party dearly and the first casualty will be the Shillong parliamentary seat. The seat or rather any seat will be very important for the Congress in the next general election because it looks like it is going to be a tough fight for the party in the entire nation.
If Congress falls then Dr. Mukul Sangma will also fall. There is no power in the world that can save him from losing the hot seat. And if the Congress loses the Shillong parliamentary seat it is nothing but the failure of the government to handle the ILP issue. Precious lives were lost to the ILP issue and the government cannot simply wash its hands on any of the unfortunate incidents because as the saying goes, it takes two to tango. The state is equally responsible for all that has happened during the last three months. It has failed in its duty to protect the life and properties both private and public. And we are in a situation where people don’t feel safe or secure to live in their own State anymore. Is this not the failure of the Government?
Coming back to Dr Mukul Sangma’s imminent fall should the Congress lose the Shillong Lok Sabha seat and the UPA its Delhi gaddi it will be a sad day not only for him but for all the people who admire him. We don’t want this to happen because we still hope that Dr. Mukul Sangma the young dynamic Chief Minister that we have will be able to complete his term and ensure that all his mission and programmes are successfully implemented