The South Asian Games are a great opportunity to showcase the opportunities of the states of Assam and Meghalaya. The Games could also tempt some of the participants to venture into the other states as well, having come this far. The images and perceptions that the participants and officials would carry back with them are also very important. On that will depend whether this region would be able to host other international Games as well. The Meghalaya Government order to remove all hoardings and advertisements along the national highway from Shillong Civil Hospital to Mawblei because such hoardings are hazardous to safe driving is a welcome one. However, this order was on account of a recent Supreme Court ruling. On its own the State Government would have been incapable of understanding these nuances.
The South Asian Games are being held in Shillong and Guwahati. In Guwahati the participants in the games would be greeted by huge hoardings of the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, complaining that the Modi Government has not released the Flood Relief Funds. This is the first time that a chief minister of any state has made a public spectacle of the tenuous Centre-State relationships. Gogoi is a past master of creating public attention through such off-beat mediums. But even the people of Assam are nauseated by this overt display of political one-upmanship. What happens if Modi puts up another big hoarding highlighting the corruption in the Flood Control Department and several other Departments of his Government? There is no dearth of corruption in Assam. Is Gogoi oblivious to all this? There is a line that politicians cannot breach and that is to turn megalomaniac and believe they are actually monarchs ruling their little fiefdoms.
The hoardings would have surprised the SAG participants and officials. It cuts a very sorry figure for Assam, its people and government. But is Assam not governed by the same Supreme Court rules?