By Toki Blah
Elections to the JHADC and KHADC have just been concluded. One watched with astonishment as ‘development’ emerged as the main manifesto for parties and candidates alike. Development as in roads, footpaths, footbridges, drinking water schemes etc. Ridiculous promises for Capital intensive projects to duplicate what the state Govt is doing. Bewildering, because a cursory glance of the 6th Schedule will immediately show that the provisions of this Schedule remain conspicuously silent on anything to do with Capital Intensive development. In reality the 6th Schedule is about something else. It’s about ability of the ADCs to make laws on crucial cultural issues pertaining to management of land, forests, jhum cultivation, social customs so on, so forth. To make laws relating to village and town administration. These are soft development concepts aimed at providing the wherewithal for safekeeping of identity; strengthening of cultural security; protecting the integrity of Tribal environmental philosophy and tradition. It’s a common mans understanding of what the 6th Schedule is all about. It however seems to have slipped the mind of our self professed champions of the Jaidbynriew. Farcical if it wasn’t so sad!
Preceding the elections and even during the campaign, the relevance and utility of the District Councils became a hot topic for debate. One expected critical musings based on factual research to enlighten the common man on the topic. Disapp-ointingly, at the end of the day, the whole exercise left all of us exactly where we started from. Shorn of emotional rhetoric, none was the wiser as to the need for continuing with the ADCs, but more importantly, we continue to remain in the dark as to the actual justification for elected MDCs. The chronology of 60 years of ADC escapades, in the Garo, Jaintia and Khasi Hills and if the current scams of JHADC are anything to go by, then MDC elections are simple exercises in futility. At the end of the day they produce nothing but frustration. A waste of time and energy and this observation is based on zero ADC delivery and zero MDC performance for the last 60 years. What else is there to say?
Not surprisingly the call for doing away with the District Councils has gained momentum. The ostensible reasoning – since we have our own Hill State, the ADCs have therefore become redundant. But have they? Could we have lost sight of the wood because of the trees? The 6th Schedule in reality is India’s recognition of the uniqueness and exclusive identity of the indigenous people of NE India. The District Councils a consequence of this recognition and with them, constitutional provisions to preserve, protect and promote the indigenous cultural integrity of these hills. The 6th Schedule as a mini constitution within a constitution is a special privilege given to us as indigenous people of India. Something which other indigenous peoples in China, Bangladesh and Myanmar are denied. The Hill state called Meghalaya is something else. It is political integration with the rest of India. Why confuse one with the other? We need both. Sheer foolishness to throw away the baby with the bath water!
The real issue that calls for focused debate is the cause behind non performance of the District Councils throughout the years. A rational and unbiased probe will likely reveal an interesting unspoken truth. We might find that ADC non performance has little to do with the concept of an institution called the District Councils. Para 3 of the 6th Schedule provides for the enactment of laws to amalgamate tradition with the needs of today. From this perspective it was an enlightened provision, well ahead of its time. It also provided for a legislative body within the council. The flaw lay in the composition of this legislature with elected representatives through adult suffrage (para 2(1). This was interpreted as representation through Party based elections, where access to power was decided by the-first-past-the-post theory, a western concept of parliamentary democracy we have yet to fully comprehend. As an implanted concept, it was totally alien to traditional practice and not surprisingly played havoc with the vision, focus and ethics of the ADCs. The elected political managers of the ADCs then simply lost their way. It’s as simple as that!
Political survival within the ADCs, rather than delivery on 6th Schedule provisions, inevitably took precedence. Toppling games, horse trading, floor crossing and EC instability became the profile of all our ADCs. Debates, discussions, laws on custom and tradition were quickly surpassed by the need to make money so as to stay in power or vice versa. Our forests were wiped out. Natural resources auctioned to the highest bidder. The high office of the Syiem, the Daloi and the Dorbar, intimidated and suppressed to ensure submission of tradition to political opportunism. If therefore the ADCs are the constitutional vehicles designed to carry tradition and culture, the MDCs can be termed as the drivers of such vehicles. That the vehicles crashed; took the wrong turning or went off the road is the drivers fault. Nothing wrong with the vehicle and its ability. It remains relevant as it was 60 years ago. The fault lies with the drivers (MDCs). The answer is simple. Change the drivers. The vehicles simply need new competent drivers with a better road sense. That’s all!
There is a secret not known to many, which played a very negative role in ADC / State Govt relations. In 1972 the Prime Minister sought the advice of a senior state politician as to the future of the District Councils in Meghalaya. “Let them remain as training ground for the state Assembly” came the reply. We waved goodbye to the original vision of the 6th Schedule. Dr Ambedker and Rev JJM Nicholsroy must have spun in their graves! MDCs and the District Council immediately became suspect and rival to those with Assembly ambitions. Not surprising that from an intended paradigm of engagement between ADC and State Govt, confrontation between the two became inevitable. Starving, thwarting and tripping District Councils became state policy. This paradigm shift in District Council philosophy also encouraged political corruption within the ADCs. Dirty politics began to hold sway when sitting MLAs also started contesting MDC seats simply to protect their own political back sides. Ensuring absolute power by winning both the MLA and MDC seat became necessary, and we all know what absolute power does – it corrupts!
If the above is the main cause for District Council impotency, then pray, where lies the remedy? The answer perhaps would lie in 6th Schedule amendment where the composition of the ADC Legislative wing and the EC are changed and modified to blend in with indigenous custom and tradition of governance. Why can’t we have a sense of comfort, self assurance and wellbeing with our ADCs? For a start let’s do away with elected MDCs. (I can distinctly hear street urchins screaming ‘Blasphemy’) Lets fill the Council Legislature with traditional chiefs- syiems, dalois, sordars, representatives of Synjuks , nokmas etc). Let them do what they are best at – to debate, to discuss and to legislate on laws they believe are important for the promotion, preservation and protection of indigenous culture, tradition and identity. Aside from Central and State list, let there be an ADC list on activities that will be dealt by the District Councils alone. Para 12(A) then becomes redundant; the legislators are paid sitting fees but have no executive roles; political power becomes meaningless in the ADCs. Traditional Consensus democracy is given a chance to revive itself.
To implement and execute the laws of Council legislature, a CEO, a management professional, with his team of experts is then contracted. Bring in expertise in Financial Management, Accounting, Land, Water and Forest management. Bring in promotional experts for culture and tradition. Establish effective monitoring and evaluation. Executives are brought in from the open market on a hire and fire basis. Their services are retained as long as they deliver. Time to bring in ADC governance that delivers. Time to amalgamate the best from tradition with the finest that the 21st century technology can offer. Time to learn from the past to solve contentious issues of the present and the future. If the call of today and tomorrow is for development that empowers; that gives joy and comfort; that ushers in community well being and hope; then let this new governance paradigm be based on traditional values that insist on justice and fairness (Kamai ia ka Hok); on social principles that call for logic and reason ( Da ka nia ka jutang) and on ethical codes of conduct based on Human dignity and rights(Ka Tip Briew Ka tip Blei). To survive we need to hope. Hope from confidence that we can manage change. To accept change as a harbinger of hope, not as the precursor of fear.
The author is President of ICARE