By Patricia Mukhim
By the time this article appears in print results of the 16th Lok Sabha polls would have been out. Going by exit polls the BJP looks like it is all set to form the Government in Delhi. Meghalaya’s poll results are immaterial to the larger scheme of things. Dr Mukul Sangma has in a spirit of bravado claimed that the Congress would do well in the North Eastern states because of good governance. He believes the Congress will win both seats in Meghalaya, notwithstanding the fact that Sangma and the Shillong MP, Vincent Pala not exactly buddies. Dr Sangma remained in Garo Hills for the entire campaign period and left the Shillong MP to his devices. Of course, Dr Sangma’s easy alibi was that he was campaigning for a rank newcomer in politics and his protégé – Daryl Momin in the Garo Hills.
Normally Dr Mukul Sangma speaks sense but unbridled bravado has prompted him to make statements he might not himself believe. Will the Congress really do well in the North East? Has the Congress really provided good governance in the region? Most of us don’t see that good governance. But that may be because we are not bleary-eyed Congress workers who have no intellectual acumen and the strength of conviction to tell their leaders what is wrong with the way the Party is running its government. When the Power crisis hit the State, the Congress Party remained sullen. Prices are hitting the roof but the Congress is silent. Is it the brief of the Party to support the Government, come hail or high-water and even when it is steeped in corruption? Isn’t that what has taken the Congress into the dog house at the Centre? Does the Congress Party not stand for the common person who has no voice? Is the Party meant to be blind to all the faults of its leaders? Even chintan baithaks have failed to bring remorse. So how can the Party ever do a course correction?
Coming back to good governance, is the neighbouring State of Assam with 14 MPs a good model? Look at the repeated bloodshed and carnage in Bodoland which the Congress Government under Tarun Gogoi has presided over since 2008. Every time a communal violence is unleashed for the purpose of ethnic cleansing in Bodoland lakhs of people are displaced from their hearths and homes and many continue to remain in these shelters for years together. Their children grow up in miserable conditions. And Dispur couldn’t be bothered! Over 5000 lethal weapons are circulating in Bodoland and the weapons are used against a certain minority group. Dispur only recently woke up to this and made some guttural noises about seizing the ammo. Is this good governance? Guwahati is not Assam. Beyond Guwahati people live desperate lives. Hence this time around Assam is set to see a drastic change in the poll results. There is a point beyond which people will refuse to suffer ignominy. As the advertisement for the Salman Khan starrer Jai Ho says, “Har aam aadmi ke under ek soya huwa sher hai” (There is a sleeping lion inside every common person). When that lion awakes change happens.
This election is not about the Congress versus the BJP. It is about extreme public disgust at the unprecedented inflation, scams and corruption of the UPA -2. It’s about a home minister (Shinde) who does not know what happens beyond Delhi and Maharashtra; it’s about an apology of a defence minister (AK Anthony) who could not instil a sense of confidence in the men in uniform, leading to the likes of former general VK Singh leaking out stuff that has embarrassed the Government; it’s about India being seen as weak and vacillating in its foreign policy especially vis-à-vis China. This election is about an overload of anti-incumbency. It is about the sense of drift as if no one was in charge and we are left ungoverned. In the absence of a viable alternative to the Congress/UPA, voters have been pushed to take a chance with the BJP. This feeling is palpable across the country. Indeed this is a much awaited election result although the answer seems clear if one is to listen to poll pundits including experienced former psephologist turned politician, Yogendra Yadav of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Yadav has conceded that the BJP will romp home to victory and admits that AAP is still seen only as a political experiment by voters.
In Delhi, discussions in homes, offices, meetings and shops veer around what happens after May 16. Those used to sinecure posts (retired IAS, IPS, IFS officers, retired chiefs of the military etc) and tied to the apron strings of the UPA know they are have now reached the point of redundancy. Modi, everyone says, is about to broom up the cobwebs in North and South Block. If rumours from those close to the power centres are to be believed then even the Planning Commission might be disbanded or revamped. It is seen as a body led by minions of the Bretton Woods institutions such as The World Bank with Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission) as its symbol. Officials in the Planning Commission say that about 98% of people who visit Ahluwalia at his office are US or other non-Indian citizens. They say that in 365 days, Planning Commission members attend office barely 30 days. The rest of the time they are travelling and doing their own thing. Hence convergence of ideas and new knowledge hardly happens. Do we wonder then why schemes articulated by the Planning Commission have had no impact on the nation and its people? Apart from the fact that the Planning Commission is not a constitutional body and is not accountable to Parliament (despite being the custodian of huge funds), the anomaly is that state chief ministers who are elected leaders have to pay obeisance to Montek and his team who are mere political appointees. This incongruity needs to be corrected.
Listening to the Delhi Durbar one is also privy to talks that the office of the National Security Advisor (NSA) – an important post since the NSA reports to the Prime Minister – would now be bifurcated into external and internal security. For many years, (except for a brief while when MK Narayanan the former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief held the post of NSA and later former Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra), this important position was the stronghold of retired foreign service officers. They have very scanty knowledge of the internal dimensions of security and lack a comprehensive idea of national security which encompasses water, food, energy, health and climate security. The BJP honchos are aware of how this position can be leveraged to make India a more enhanced, comprehensive national power. They have seen what is wrong with the country for ten long years and will hopefully spend quality time to repair the faultlines.
Another distortion of the Constitution that actually afflicted the UPA was the dual power centres where the fountain head of power was actually the Chairperson of the UPA – a non-constitutional post – with the Prime Minister remaining only a figure head. Moreover, this election appears to have been a collective rebellion against dynasty and the dynastic-monarchical rule that is incongruous in a democracy. That Rahul Gandhi had to sweat it out in Amethi, once considered the Nehru-Gandhi bastion tells us that people are no longer happy with patronage. They want to access their rights and privileges as citizens not as subjects of a kingdom who have to genuflect before their rulers. One hopes the Congress learns a lesson from this election.
Now what happens to Meghalaya? Everyone in Delhi is discussing PA Sangma’s well-timed meeting with Narendra Modi. This time Sangma has stooped lower than he had ever done to win the elections (if he does win). Once a statesman who would dismiss the idea of a divided Meghalaya, this time he rode on the bandwagon of a separate Garoland – a battle cry first raised by the ANVC a militant outfit – which later agreed to a more empowered autonomous council along the lines of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). If PA Sangma wins, the division of Meghalaya would start in right earnest. Or will it? Will the BJP have time for such absurd demands? We have to wait and watch!