By Patricia Mukhim
Meghalaya’s political journey is riddled with uncertainty. It is too personality driven and not oriented towards development and progress. There is a quest for change but it ends there. Those who seek change cannot promise that the change would necessarily be good for the State and its people. In this quest for change our ministers spend more time in Delhi than in their rooms in the secretariat. Hence work suffers and the pace of development slackens. So what do the dissidents have against Mukul Sangma? It cannot be personal because it is political. And anything that is political involves the people. So people have the right to know why Mukul Sangma is no longer a good chief minister. We need to know who will replace Mukul Sangma and the credentials of that person. This is not just the business of the Congress High Command, it is the concern of three million Meghalayans, and so the dissidents had better take us into confidence. Give us the bullet points as to why Mukul Sangma needs to be dislodged.
If the reason for change is instigated by Mr Vincent Pala through the MLAs/ministers who are camped in Delhi then it is not a valid enough reason for change. If the reasons for wanting Mukul out are based on evidence of his inability to provide good governance; of his being corrupt; of his inability to work as a team; or simply the arrogance of power, then perhaps the dissidents have a valid reason. But will the one who replaces Mukul be different? Will he have the vision for Meghalaya? If Mukul is replaced by DD Lapang or Salseng Marak then Meghalaya will slip back into decadence. We cannot forget how militancy in Meghalaya was on the upsurge during Salseng Marak’s tenure. It was during his time that the then Home Minister told the business persons who were extorted by the HNLC to negotiate with them, instead of giving them assurance that the Police would tackle the matter with the seriousness it deserved.
In the group of four are also Prestone Tynsong and HDR Lyngdoh. The first one is a smart politician with a quick appreciation of facts and figures. Most Khasis call him “shalak” a word which could mean anything from intelligent to cunning to witty and what have you. Officers who have worked with Tynsong claim that he is not venal as he appears to be. They say he consults and takes decisions that are good in the long term. That sounds like a good character certificate. And who better than officers who know the intricate nature in which the web of corruption is woven into the system, to give that report card! HDR Lyngdoh, with due respect, is not my idea of a chief minister. He is good as the MLA of Sohiong and for want of senior MLAs he has been a minister in respective governments but one cannot remember a single instance when he shone out because of a brilliant brainwave. My idea of leadership is not what HDR Lyngdoh is. It is sad that we call politicians our leaders. The word has to be deconstructed because too many of our MLAs don’t qualify to be called leaders in the real sense of the term. They don’t have the charisma to influence anyone. Hence they have to buy votes during the elections. So HDR Lyngdoh as Chief Minister is a ‘No No.’
That the dissident group have the Shillong MP Vincent Pala as their liaison man in Delhi is also not surprising. Pala has not forgotten the problems he had to surmount during his election campaign this time. But was that not payback time from Mukul Sangma to him for what he did during the Assembly elections in 2013? Has Pala forgotten how he set up candidates against the official Congress nominees? Surely what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. If Sonia Gandhi is to listen to Pala’s list of complaints against Mukul Sangma I am sure she has enough received wisdom to also listen to his beta-noire as well. How can the Congress President base her judgment after listening to only one side of the story?
Mukul Sangma might not be on top of things today but that does not mean that his rivals would do better. Meghalaya has suffered a huge backlog in development because those we elected have been busy playing musical chairs instead of governing the State. And most MLAs have won by using the MLA Scheme to buy votes. Local contractors are distributed work orders by the MLA at the fag end of his/her term. If there is an evil that needs to be done away with, then the MLA scheme is that evil. Former minister RG Lyngdoh was the only one to suggest that this obnoxious scheme be revoked. It encourages patronage democracy, fuels corruption and makes beggars out of self-respecting people. The civil society of Meghalaya must petition the Courts to put a stop to this scheme because it subverts the principle of free and fair elections.
If India under Prime Minister Modi is set to see transformational governance fuelled by revolutionary ideas then Meghalaya too must move at that same pace. We cannot allow pompous politicians with petty mindsets and stinking thinking to drive our agenda. I would like to ask the four Chief Minister Wannabes what their agenda for change is. What is it that they want to change which they are unable to effect under the present government? Could they make that public for us? In fact, in a democracy where we expect complete transparency these dissident Congressmen should inform us, the people, what exactly they had told Sonia Gandhi and what is the “historic” moment in that meeting which the gentlemen are so elated about? We need to know. If it is about Meghalaya it cannot be a state secret.
One of the great achievements of the Modi Government is to dismantle the Planning Commission and its hierarchy and bureaucracy and to usher in a new think tank- the National Development and Reforms Commission along the lines of China. If Mukul Sangma has the guts, the drive and the determination to bring in change he should dismantle the totally redundant Planning Board which has never served the State but only political dependents. In fact, politics under the Congress/ UPA regime was all about awarding obsequious political hangers-on whose contributions to the Party or the State have been on the negative. The Planning Board should become a think tank from which the Government could draw upon instead of paying itinerant consultants who are ignorant about our eco-system. There are enough university professors, economic experts, social scientists etc., who could breathe life into such a think tank without demanding the perks that politicians do.
Meghalaya needs a dynamic chief minister who will be guided by good policy initiatives, a robust governance model that reaches the last mile and one who eschews motives of self- aggrandizement. We have seen corruption from very close quarters over the years. We have seen people consumed by overwhelming greed and using their political office to feather their own nests. This is just not acceptable. If the rest of India could vote for change and change not just of political parties but also of individuals in those parties then Meghalaya too must follow suit. But from now until 2018 we need a chief minister with a clear idea of where he wants to take the state. That person has to put selfish interests aside and put the State and its people as a priority. That person has to sort out the intractable problem of militancy in Garo Hills. That person must have the spine to stand up to the diktat of militants and NGOs who try to blackmail the Government. Is there such a person among the CM Wannabes?