A case of double-speak
Some senior leaders of the Congress Party seem to be suffering from selective amnesia.
The same people who teamed up with Dr Mukul Sangma in Delhi to campaign against giving the Shillong Parliamentary constituency ticket to Vincent Pala are now seen in the photo-ops with the winner, at his residence, joining hands with him in his moment of victory.
Pala’s campaign team said they worked amidst great travails as there was internal dissension in the Party and finances for election expenses were not forthcoming from the AICC this time around. Those in the know however, said that the prime reason for the Central Election Committee of the AICC to actually favour Pala against other contenders is because would be a self-financing candidate.
A former politician who mooted the idea of contesting the Lok Sabha election made a very conservative estimate of the expenses and said that an MP candidate would have to spend at the very least Rs 10 lakhs per constituency.
For 36 constituencies he would have had to shell out Rs 3.60 crore. This kind of money is difficult to come by for anyone who is not a business person. Considering that Mr Pala also had to battle constituencies where his adversaries (from the Congress) spent money to finance his rivals, the amount spent would have been substantial. So much for participating in the dance fro democracy!
Agonising admission season
The ‘festivity’ of admissions is underway. The hustle involving the fiery sale of prospectus, booklet after booklet glorifying the best features of every institute being handed out for a couple of hundred rupees, not to forget the ‘admission form’ cushioned between the pages of the prospectus, an A4 sized paper which at this time of the year, sells for nothing less than a hundred rupees will be let loose!
With a devoted intention of providing no respite to students, ‘admission counters’ are set to open up just minutes following the declaration of the Class X and XII (Arts) results on Monday.
The list of successful candidates are scheduled to be out by 10 AM and colleges are all geared up to take in students by holding ‘spot admissions’ as early as 12PM in many cases.
Chaos is set to reign large with departments of some colleges holding entrance examinations and this only means that you collect your mark-sheet and race for the next examination hall.
Unfolding with the designing of attractive banners to woo the student community like ‘bees to a colourful flower’, the admission season for the year makes its way into the life of every young dreamer, showing them hopes for a good…better…best future. With the limited scope of getting jobs, it remains to be seen as to how far such promises materialize.
The bar is raised every year to the point of making it a ‘survival of the fittest or fastest in some cases.’ With the ‘spot admissions’, the ‘cut-offs’, the ‘first-come-first-serves’, the concept of ‘Knowledge for one and all’ might just take a backseat to be dominated by the more influential lot of competitors. At the end of the day, its all about the money, honey!
Regional parties a patriarchal lot
At a discussion analyzing the results of the just concluded Lok Sabha election organized by Shillong DDK, the two a on the current election in Meghalaya, a point was made by one of the panelists that the regional parties don’t have space for women leaders when 50% of the population in this state is made up of women.
The KHNAM representative said women shy away from taking responsible roles even when they had been asked to come forward.
The UDP representative agreed with the panelist that indeed women don’t wish to take the lead or be spokespersons of the Party. In a matrilineal society this dichotomy requires a diagnosis. But who will do this research work?