The anxiety of the newly installed CEM of Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) Adelbert Nongrum for having anti-defection law extended to the Council is not difficult to understand. In the absence of such a law, the spectre of instability that threatens to rock the ruling non-Congress conglomeration is not a figment of the imagination. The heart burn in HSPDP over the dramatic and unceremonial ouster of Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit from the top job is bound to tell on the coalition one way or the other. Already HSPDP has extracted its pound of flesh by having its way in the formation of new Executive Committee(EC). That the new CEM had to give in to the diktat of HSPDP bears testimony to the portents of familiar fissures in the regional party satrap. It is only natural for the opposition Congress to salivate at the slightest hint of tremor in the ruling coalition. Given the established political culture of pilitical deception and defection, it surprises no one that Meghalaya has acquired an unenviable track record of political instability both at the State Legislature and the three ADCs. The despicable history of floor crossings by the elected representatives over the pasr four decades is a veritable tale of shameless self-seeking and brazen lust for power. It makes bizzare reading that in the 43 years of Meghalaya, there have been 35 cabinet formations under ten different Chief Ministers. The KHADC, according to one estimate, has had a staggering 40 ECs during the past 60 years! Though the State Legislature has somewhat been reined in following enactment of anti-defection law under the Tenth Schedule, the bugbear of instability continues to haunt the District Councils.
Regretably the efforts to bring the ADCs under the purview of Tenth Schedule have so far been half-hearted and scrappy. In the first place, why the District Councils were left out when the Tenth Schedule was enacted will remain a mystery. When KHADC passed its own law in 2003, it was struck down by the High Court on grounds of impropriety. It took eight long years for the State to wake up for taking the next step; State Assembly unanimously adopted a Resolution asking the Centre to bring ADCs under the Tenth Schedule. The next couple of years things felt silent again. Last year the Government formally approached the Centre to amend the Constitution for the purpose of checking the scourge of defection in the ADCs. Now the ball rests squarely with New Delhi. The tectonic political change in the country leading to the BJP-led NDA’s spectacular feat of having two-third majority in the Lok Sabha should ensure easy passage of Constitution amendment. Few can overlook the dithering in calling the bluff of MLAs who are also MDCs enjoying double bonanza, as it were. Chief Minister Mukul Sangma who keeps pushing so many things of importance with the Centre, is not known to have these issues in his priority list. It is time to revisit the Sixth Schedule in all its ramifications in order to make it a potent vehicle for change of fortune of the vast number of under-privileged tribes whose destiny has hardly been altered by this unique Constitutional body in existence since India became a Republic.