By Patricia Mukhim
Purno Agitok Sangma whose name every citizen of Meghalaya is familiar with is no more. This icon of Meghalaya politics had struggled his way up from Chapahati village of West Garo Hills and went on to become the Presidential candidate in June 2012 although he knew that the Congress party which once groomed and nurtured him was a formidable foe.
Sangma cut his teeth in the Congress party where he became the vice president of the State Youth Congress in 1973, two years after Meghalaya was born. Known as the protégé of Meghalaya’s founder Chief Minister Capt. Williamson Sangma, he went on to become general secretary of the party in 1975 and fought the 6th Lok Sabha election from Tura constituency which has since become his pocket borough.
He was first elected MP in 1977 and has never lost any election since. He was MP for nine terms with a brief stint in state politics between 1988-1990 and 2008-2012.
When P.A. Sangma entered state politics he did not understand the pitfalls that awaited him. Sangma tried to cleanse the system of the politician-contractor-engineer nexus which resulted in payment of huge compensations for land acquisition for road building purposes. He publicly stated that he was appalled that the compensation paid for land far exceeded the cost of the road.
In fact at one time he said that villages that wanted roads should be ready to donate land to the government. Sangma held weekly meetings where he took stock of every department. He knew what each department did or did not do. This did not go down too well with his ministerial colleagues and the babus in the Secretariat.A grand plot was hatched to overthrow him and some of his own colleagues in the Congress were party to this diabolical power game. Sangma’s government lost majority and a regional party led government was formed in 1990. So disillusioned was he with state politics that he resigned from his MLA seat and went back to central politics only to return in 2008 to contest as an NCP candidate. Sangma not only won but also ensured that 14 other candidates won from the NCP but the regional forces did not concur on making him the chief minister. This was another blow.
Nevertheless he worked tirelessly to prepare a Plan document for Meghalaya after consulting experts from various fields including the famed economist and former Planning Commission member Dr. N.J. Kurian.
The government he was part of was toppled yet again, this time by the Congress (2010). This further disillusioned him. He entered politics with a clear agenda to put Meghalaya on the national map as a model state. That was his idealistic dream but perhaps fate destined otherwise.
The present Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Mukul Sangma, is his beta noire. The fangs were displayed even within the House when the media would come up with captions like “Sangma versus Sangma” or “The Sangmas fight it out in the Assembly”.
Paeans have been written about P.A. Sangma’s tenure as the Lok Sabha Speaker. In a very amiable yet stern way he was able to control the boisterous Lok Sabha MPs and their shenanigans.
There is a saying among Congressmen that had Sangma not abandoned the Congress he would have risen very high in the government and might have even become the consensus candidate and the first tribal to be considered for the post of President. Alas! Fate willed otherwise.
Sangma would recall his own naivety in agreeing to move the anti-Sonia campaign in 2004. At the time when the plot was hatched there were several senior Congressmen who egged him on to lead the charge. He trusted them and even believed that Sonia Gandhi would yield to pressure from within the party and step down voluntarily. But the Congress split and the NCP was born.
Some of the senior members of the Congress who are still with the party virtually let him down. But that is politics. The tribal in P.A. Sangma could not read the signs of the times.
Those close to Sangma have many interesting narratives. He was the blue-eyed boy of Late Rajiv Gandhi and travelled extensively with the former Prime Minister. Rajiv too depended a lot on Purno for feedback on the region.
He was perhaps one person from the North East who was closest to the Gandhi family including Late Indira Gandhi under whom he served in various ministries from 1980-1984 and later under Rajiv Gandhi as Coal, Labour and Commerce Minister etc.
Sangma’s proclivity to change parties had however taken a toll. People were no longer ready to jump fences with this veteran politician. The Congress benefitted from this and Sangma had no other option but to align with the BJP. He continued to nurse a fond hope that BJP would award him with a ministry considering his vast experiences. But that has remained only a dream!
RIP Purno Agitok Sangma. You have run the race and have won some and lost some.