By Toki Blah
Meghalaya had just successfully conducted its Lok Sabha elections. Come to think of it, this MP election was really short of issues, except perhaps for ‘The please vote for me’ plea. No wonder the attitude of the public to the elections was one of general apathy and indifference. As one watched, on TV, the build up to the elections in other parts of the country, the stark difference between public involvement there and here, is so glaring; so conspicuous that one wonders, why? In the rest of the country there is excitement over a host of issues. Right or wrong, the Indian electorate connected their own day to day priorities to the elections; the parties and the candidates. Corruption in politics; poor governance; development; secularism; failure of foreign policy; defense and national security related issues and a host of other contemporary Indian concerns came up for open debate in both the public and electronic domain. They became election issues. Parties and candidates were forced to give their take and their views, providing the electorate something to chew the cud on.
Against this national background, the serenity and total public lethargy to the recent MP elections was the hall mark of the Shillong -1 constituency. For the last five years, people have been screaming; shouting; held bandhs; tossed petrol bombs; caused general mayhem on a host of issues. ILP; alleged Govt indiscretions towards the poor; land alienation at Mawdiagndiang; weak Lokayukts etc have been the highlights of alleged misgovernance in the state. High profile activists and NGOs had been in the forefront agitating against various forms of official misdeeds. Came the elections and everyone and every public grievance suddenly went on the blink. Public agitation suddenly became comatose overnight. How come the conscience keepers of the poor and the marginalized suddenly went underground? The issue of human rights and poverty suddenly disappeared from their radar. One thing was obvious – Election expenditure sure has a funny way of gagging some shrill and conscientious voices. This sudden silence during election time is most intriguing. Fishy perhaps describes it best.
On the other hand a cursory talk with any person on the street would immediately bring up what the common man expects to hear from election manifestos. People need assurances about their livelihoods, their health care, the education of their children; they need to feel secure about their future. People become anxious, uneasy and apprehensive when the cost of living shoots up; when venues of employment dry up; when they begin to feel that sacrifices made do not give commensurate returns. People generally want to be enveloped by a feeling of general well being. When that feeling is absent; when mal governance; corruption in public life; social violence and the absence of the Rule of law prevail, all sense of social security begins to fade. In such times people turn to their leaders for inspiration, hope and for assurance. Once again our political leadership failed us. Instead of guarantees for a better life, the run-up to the polls saw instead a heavy dose of critical comments on the CM’s style of functioning. What has that got to do with election manifestos? One is still trying to figure that one out. If at all there was any message for betterment or development it was successfully camouflaged. The time to befool the public is once again upon us and politicians ensured that it was so!
No one cared to delve into issues of real development or for that matter whether the sort of development being followed is the one we need. In the absence of clarification from our political luminaries, perhaps we can do some rudimentary investigation ourselves. Let’s take the production of cement for instance. Licenses for cement production were given on the belief that it would bring prosperity to the state. Cement is currently selling at Rs 350 per bag or Rs 7000 per Mt ( 20 bags make a ton). At Khliehriat where 90% of the cement factories are located, and where factories own captive limestone quarries, mill gate price of raw limestone is approximately Rs 400/mt. Two mt of limestone roughly convert to one mt of cement. Add another 200 mt for other misc costs such as labor, fuel, power etc. Now deduct Rs 300 (transport subsidy, power subsidy, local labor subsidy, Sales tax exemption, excise exemption etc) from each mt as a package incentive from our benevolent Industries Deptt. Total production cost of cement at Khliehriat comes to approximately Rs 700 per mt (1000- minus 300-). But it is sold at Rs 7000 per mt in the market. (Pl see table below)
A neat profit of 6300/-per mt is made and if this does not qualify as officially sponsored looting, then what is? Developed production no doubt, but at whose cost and at what cost?
But that’s not all as there are other hidden costs that society has to pay so that the cement lobby can make a 900% profit. Let’s examine the environmental cost. The famous, legendary, impenetrable and traditional Jaintia forest “Ki lum bah Bo bah Kong” of Narpuh have vanished, gifted to the cement companies, in between 2004-2007 by a reckless Forest Deptt and an equally grasping and clueless JHADC. The famous limestone caves that took millions of years to form, destroyed so that some industrialist from somewhere can have a fatter bank account. If the excuses of the cement factories are to be believed, they claim that they have to make such unheard of profits so as to make up for the under-the -table payments made to obtain a license. Development is sold to the highest bidder in Meghalaya. So if today there is public consternation over unfriendly and dangerous development, who is to blame? The industrialist? The ADCs? The bureaucrat of the Forest and Industries Deptt? Or the Chief Executive of the State then who sold his state for the proverbial 30 pieces of silver?
Then of course there is that other paradigm of local development which we are so proud of but which is also proving a cancer, eating away at our vitals. It is about the rat hole coal mining industry that a coal mafia-politician lobby lovingly call Meghalaya’s main economy. It’s a health hazard of the worst kind that has nearly wiped out traditional farming in East Jaintia Hills and which has now even turned our rivers into dead water bodies. Once proud paddy field owners have turned daily wage laborers. Their fields wiped out by sulphur runoff from the coal. The poor suffer the most, especially their women, who trudge more than 5 km each day for a bucket of water. This is the type of development that Meghalaya has been fostering. It’s a development paradigm that kills. Sadly no manifesto cared or dared to make mention of this danger to society. Where are the priorities of our politicians and political leaders? They are so glib at accusing each other, yet so silently subservient when it comes to finger pointing at those who murder society. The irony is they still have the cheek to ask for our votes so that they can continue to hasten our demise.
At this juncture a question pops up. A question that we all need to ask ourselves. It needs to be asked because our very survival as a state, a people, a community will depend on the answer we give ourselves. Can Meghalaya still afford to harbor and nourish such self seeking, blind and incompetent political leaders? Or is it the political system that has produced such a cannibalistic breed of politicians among the Tribes of Meghalaya? We have to accept that we have taken a wrong turning somewhere and that the time has come to revert to the right path. The correct path is to rediscover good governance in Meghalaya. We need to jettison as fast as possible the concept of nepotism among our political elite. They don’t rule by Divine Right but by the will of the electorate. We have to reinstall the concept of Equality, Egalitarianism and Rule of Law. We have to do it fast otherwise within 10 decades the Khasis, the Jaintias and the Achiks would just be names in a list of extinct indigenous races. We don’t deserve such a fate.
(The author is President of ICARE, an organization that focuses on issues of good governance)