The regional political parties in Meghalaya have strived for decades to maintain a united political stance. Their attempts have met with successive failures. Each time the elections come knocking, the political rhetoric on unity begins only to belie the aspirations of those who believe in regional parties as the best option for local and regional needs. The disunity of the regional political forces has emboldened the Congress Party – the only national party with a mass base in Meghalaya – to take the electorate for granted election after election. It is a natural state of things that when there is no competition people and political parties are not challenged to deliver their best. This is true of the Congress Party in Meghalaya. It has learnt to expect to rule the State by playing on the divisive tendencies among the regional party stalwarts. The very fact that a promising leader like Ardent Basaiawmoit had to leave the United Democratic Party (UDP) on some flimsy pretext and join the Hill State Peoples’ Democratic Party (HSPDP) is a malady that needs careful study. Political researchers need to decipher why the regional parties n Meghalaya are so fragmented. Is it because the leaders put themselves ahead of the electorate?
If regional party unity is what most people in Meghalaya want then the leaders of regional political parties should learn to listen rather than to speak and talk down to the electorate. How many times have we had a common voters’ conclave where politicians could just sit silently and listen to what people have to say? Politicians have, for too long, got used to the idea that they are natural leaders without understanding the foremost principles about leadership. There is a marked difference between a leader of the people and a self-styled leader. Just because someone has money to buy social acceptance and decides to contest elections can he be called a leader? In that case everyone with money should be a leader. Look at leaders like Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln to understand the basics of leadership. They put country and people above themselves. They hardly catered to interest groups and vested interests which our politicians have to do today. That made it easy for them to take decisions because they did not have to depend on a coterie of business persons with vested interests to finance their elections.
Meghalaya has suffered from a stark leadership vacuum irrespective of political parties. The Congress is kept together by a High Command or else it would have splintered into smithereens. Regional parties are too democratic and have too many disparate leaders, each of whom wants the leadership position to bolster his ego. It’s not about the people. It has never been about the people. The PEOPLE have been the biggest suckers not to see through this ego battle of the stalwarts. We are set to witness yet another example of regional party disunity in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. It’s an old story of petty-minded pygmies with giant egos, retold.