Even before the dust could settle on the Meghalaya poll results, attempts are now on to create rumblings within the Congress camp and to destabilize the Mukul Sangma led Government. Interestingly those who are demanding Mukul’s ouster and gunning for former Education Minister, Ampareen Lyngdoh are not Congressmen and women but leaders of the Nationalist Peoples’ Party (NPP)led by PA Sangma who won the recent Lok Sabha elections. It is difficult to see how better governance can be provided to Meghalaya merely by changing the person in the driving seat. While there is a case for taking the CBI report on the Education scam to its logical end, considering that the then Education Minister’s arbitrary actions caused loss of jobs for deserving candidates, the case for removing the chief minister smacks of political vendetta. The choice of an alternative chief minister of Meghalaya is in any case, not the brief of the new Government in Delhi. In Meghalaya the Congress is still the single largest party. To destabilize this government simply because there is a BJP-led dispensation in New Delhi is to take politics to a new low.
The opposition here should instead keep the government on its toes and point out to all the scams that are indulged in by different actors including the technocrats and bureaucrats. Let the Opposition conduct an investigation on the wealth rankings of the engineers of the PHE, PWD and MeECL etc. The condition of the Wah Umiew which feeds the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme is pathetic. Whose brief is it to regulate the human activities on this river? Is it not the responsibility of the Chief Engineer of the PHED to conduct awareness programmes for the communities living around the Wah Umiew? Why should vehicles be allowed to be washed in the River? What is the role of the Dorbar Shnong of the area? Sorting out all these issues is not just the responsibility of the Government but of all elected authorities, particularly the District Councils and also of civil society.
Good governance will not come about simply by removing one chief minister and replacing him with another. There is no guarantee that the next man/woman will deliver. It’s important not to politicize issues that require serious consideration. Issues affecting Meghalaya require our collective engagement. This is what we should strive for. Let the Government in Delhi do its own work.