By H H Mohrmen
The United Democratic Party, the largest regional party in the state and the single largest constituent in opposition alliance in the state assembly deserves praise for coming up with the idea to charge sheet the government. The ability of the UDP to come up with the brilliant idea has proven to the people of Meghalaya that the party has not been idle but it is playing its role as a responsible opposition party. It is indeed a bright idea and it is effective too because the charge sheet has put the Chief Minister on the docks and he has no other option but to come forward to defend his government and this is good for democracy in the state.
The final verdict will be given by the people but judging from what is going on and the response of the Chief Minister to the charge sheet via the media it is obvious that the Chief Minister has not been able to defend the charges against him and his government. Dr Sangma has not been able clarify the doubts that the common people have with regards to the charges leveled against him and the government. The charge of nexus between the Chief Minister and a militant group is serious and he cannot merely conclude that because the UDP cannot substantiate their allegations against him hence the charges are not true. The Chief Minister is in the docks, hence the onus is on him to clarify doubts against claims made by certain leaders of the militant group (who was later eliminated) that he has connections with certain outfits. Dr Sangma needs to come up with convincing evidence to prove that the statement made was wrong and that he has no connection with any militant outfit whatsoever. Dr Sangma must clear his name from this charge but by throwing back the ball on the UDP court he is being irresponsible.
One of the glaring examples that the MUA-2 has failed is the government’s failure in maintaining law and order in the Garo hills area of the state. The government has not only miserably failed to contain the activities of the militants in the region but it has also failed to curb the emergence of new militant groups in the Garo hills. People’s worst fears is that Garo hills will go the Manipur way when militant outfits would pop up like mushrooms during the monsoons. The government has not only failed in checking militant activities in Garo hills but it was instead equally responsible in reviving the dormant HNLC which is a threat to the peace and harmony of the Khasi Jaintia hills. The news about the leader of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) and 11 others joining the outfit should be a matter of great concern for the government and if 12 people have joined openly, how many have done so secretly? There is certainly something wrong in the way the government runs its affairs and its mishandling of situations is the reason why many young people feel frustrated to extent of deciding to join militant outfits.
Leaders should be careful while making statements to the media – statements which would further frustrate the already agitated young minds. When the Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma in his effort to defend one of his party man stated in the media that allegations against his CEM in the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council is yet to be proven, it has not only discouraged the spirited RTI activists but it has further frustrated young people who already know that RTI information cannot be wrong and expect that people in power should not treat the report with disdain. That the FIR was filed based on the RTI report was not of any importance to the Chief Minister. Dr Sangma’s statement has also dampened the spirit of the police who burned their midnight oil to complete the investigation and has only emboldened the accused. Add to the statement of the CM, the Deputy Chief Minister Dr. RC Laloo while canvassing for Congress candidates in Jowai. He was recorded saying that the allegations in the RTI are only an election propaganda which happens every five years. Sadly, both the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister belittled the findings in the RTI report. The first question to the two heads of MUA government is whether RTI reports are legal documents and can they be manipulated? Can RTI reports be accepted as evidence in the court of law? If the two heads of the MUA government can answer even one of the two questions they would not have made those ridiculous statements which only prove their ignorance of the legislation that Congress considers its landmark achievement. Or maybe both the doctors are of the opinion that MUA government does not fall under the purview of the RTI Act 2005 and it does not consider RTI findings as legal document. Dr Sangma and Dr Laloo would have done themselves a favour if they would only go online and read the transcript of the first and the only television interview that the Congress Vice President had with Arnab Goswami and try to count how many times Rahul Gandhi mentioned the abbreviation RTI in the interview on Times Now. I tried counting but stopped after 12 but some say that he repeatedly mentioned RTI more than 30 times in a 50 minutes interview.
The point is that Rahul throughout the interview tried to emphasise that the passing of RTI legislation is one of the major achievements of the UPA government. He stressed that the Congress is working for empowerment of women and the weaker sections and RTI is one of the tools to achieve the objectives. If they had only looked at the transcripts of the interview they would have realized that the Vice President of the Congress party has only one agenda and that is empowerment of the people and two tools that he hoped will be able to help the party achieve those goals are RTI and MNREGA. He said in the interview “I believe in the RTI, I believe in giving power to our people.” On a question about the BJP and Narendra Modi he said, “We have fundamentally different philosophies. Our political party is fighting an ideological battle against the BJP and let me draw out the two pillars- our party believes that women should be empowered, democracy should go to every house, that RTI, and the MNREGA paradigm should be further expanded.” Rahul further said, “we have empowered millions and millions of people though frankly the most powerful legislation that has ever taken place in this country is the RTI- Right to information. Things that used to be closed, things that were in closed doors which nobody knew about are now made public.” He proudly claimed RTI as one of the major achievements of the UPA government and said, “We are the ones who brought the RTI which is the single biggest weapon against corruption. And we got it ourselves. We are the ones who delivered RTI to this country.”
Rahul Gandhi gives a lot of importance to the RTI while Dr Sangma and Dr Laloo treated it disparagingly. So should people believe the two doctors and treat RTI reports like dirt or are we supposed to believe the Vice President of the Congress party who believes that RTI is empowerment? One can conclude that in the first hearing of the case based on charge-sheets brought forward by the UDP, the MUA -2 has failed miserably. One hopes that next time around Dr Sangma will come prepared. But the Congress is fortunate that the final hearing is a little less than a month from now when the people of the state will give their final verdict when they go to the polls for the next general elections on April 16 2014.