By Patricia Mukhim
Last week this writer did a brief sketch of the two contestants to the Lok Sabha seat from Garo Hills and likened the fight to that between David and Goliath. I am happy that a prayer meeting organised for Daryl Momin took note of this metaphor and that the preacher made mention of this seemingly unequal battle. But for Christians, all battles belong or should belong to the Lord, right? Although how many actually believe this when they fight to win, “at any and all costs” including that of using armed militia, makes you wonder where Christianity ends and insanity begins. Christianity is a faith based on a set of ethical benchmarks. Needless to say those benchmarks are difficult to attain because we are after all only humans. But do we even try? Because if we did try and believe the Bible which says, “everything that happens happens for good” we would not use extraordinary human endeavours which include buying voters, to win elections. To my mind therefore, Christianity has become an external garb of respectability to enable us to be part of an elite club (a ticket to heaven).
Let’s look at the profiles of the contestants from the Shillong Parliamentary constituency. We have Vincent Pala, former minister and Congress party candidate. There is Paul Lyngdoh the UDP sponsored candidate, and Rev PBM Basaiawmoit supported by the HSPDP and KHNAM. The AAP has fielded a former Forest Service Officer, Amerington Kharshiing. The BJP has fielded a financially well-endowed candidate, Shibun Lyngdoh, a name we have not heard of. Denis Siangshai, a coal baron is contesting as independent and so too Iborina Shylla who used to be in the BJP. The CPI too has fielded a candidate. The contest for the Shillong seat this time will be mainly a four-cornered one. And as can be predicted with so many candidates in the fray the Congress is likely to slip by through the gaps. The regional party votes will be completely fragmented. The Congress party has its dedicated vote bank up to the primary units. Many of the voters are hardly aware of the changing fortunes of the party. They will continue to vote as they had voted in the past without too many questions asked. Money will change hands as always and the Election Commission will not be privy to that exchange. Last time I wrote a similar piece on money changing hands during elections, I was served a show-cause by the Election Commission, almost as if the Commission is unaware of this single most pernicious malady in the system.
If the regional parties had united as they had, to keep the Congress Party out of the Khasi Hills District Council the victory would have been theirs. But a holier than thou attitude of some of the regional party leaders and their congenital aversion to Paul Lyngdoh (for reasons best known to them but also not unknown to the public as it dates back to the days of activism and turf wars) would mean that Paul Lyngdoh has to fight different pitched battles. In terms of calibre to represent the people of Meghalaya in Delhi, both Paul Lyngdoh and Reverend Basaiawmoit are equal to the task. One has not heard of Amerington Kharshiing or the other candidates. We have seen how we were represented by Vincent Pala in the last five years. Those who believe he argued our case well will, I suppose, continue to support him. But do people really vote on the basis of what they expect the MP to do for them as a collective? Do people vote on issues? Have people even begun to discuss the most important and thorny issues that baffle Meghalaya? This is our biggest problem. We are as divided on issues as we are on political parties. No wonder we have been taken for a ride for several decades.
A People’s Manifesto rather than one prepared by political parties to suit themselves would have been better for us. We need candidates to be upfront about their views on the Inner Line Permit and not do a wishy-washy job. They either believe in it or they don’t. And they should have the courage of conviction to say why they want the ILP to be implemented in Meghalaya or why they believe it is a retrograde step. We don’t want our MPs taking a populist stance.
As a state what Meghalaya needs the most for it to upscale its economy and to make the ‘educational hub’ jargon a reality is a fully functioning airport. That this state which was once the capital of the North East, does not have an airport and that our MP, Mr Pala never once spoke about this dire need tells us that we are badly misrepresented in Delhi. We should demand a promissory note from all candidates that their election theme should be “No airport, no rest.” An airport will make Shillong the IT destination and also as Dr Axel Geothals, CEO, European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) said at a meeting at the Secretariat recently – a conference tourism centre and a market for niche products. Dr AG Ahangar, Director NEIGRIHMS compares Shillong to Srinagar and says that while Srinagar has 13 daily flights to and from Delhi, Shillong cannot even manage one flight. Hence holding conferences or inviting visiting professors from across the country and the world to the capital city of Meghalaya takes too much travel time. IIM Shillong has a similar problem with visiting professors. Some things have just not picked up at all in this State and we seem happy with the system. The reason why Meghalaya has not taken off as any kind of destination is its lack of connectivity. Connectivity would have spurred an industrial revolution (not the polluting variety of course but those demanding soft skills) and jobs would have been created in the bargain. After all its either a virtuous or vicious cycle.
A Lok Sabha candidate is not supposed to promise anything personal. He/she is not expected to spend money on buying votes. If he/she has a road map to sell to the people and if he/she is convincing enough to show people that big picture about what the person envisages for the people of Meghalaya, ten, fifteen or twenty years hence, I am sure people would buy into that dream. Unfortunately our so-called leaders speak of abstract issues and of development in a very local context as if that is the job of the MP. The MP must be able to talk of the state not of constituencies. Alas! Most of our MPs have small minds and small ambitions for the people and the state. Their real big ambition is for themselves and their kin. Do we see anything different this time around? Well, the parties have not yet come up with their manifestos. The Congress has splattered the entire town with hoardings of Rahul G who promises us that while others talk of ‘I, me and mine,’ Congress talks of ‘We’. And while others break and fragment the Congress speaks of cementing. As Meghalayans we could fall flat for the cementing bit. We are a people with an enduring love affair with cement. Look at how we cement up our compounds from corner to corner. So we know cement and what cementing does. What we don’t know is that cement is competing with our greenery. We have lost our greenery to cement. And we are feeling the consequences of climate change. Does anyone of the MPs know the impact of climate change and what he/she aims to do about ameliorating the consequences and teaching farmers the adaptation strategies?
We are quite nauseated by the name-calling in Garo Hills. We hear of wolves in sheep’s clothing and such sabre-rattling bordering on the personal that issues important to Garo Hills have been completely sidelined. This should not be allowed to happen in Shillong. This Lok Sabha election is about issues, not about personalities. So let’s keep it that way. Candidates must be ready to answer questions instead of just ‘lecturing’ us on the values of electing them. In fact they should be ready to come on a common platform and tell us what are the ten things they intend to do in the next five years if they are elected. We will keep a note of those aspirational ideas and remind them one by one each time they come visiting from Delhi to Shillong.