Patricia Mukhim
That a lawmaker should be absconding after allegedly raping a minor girl twice over is Meghalaya’s hour of shame. That he should have been elected in the first place shows the weakness of our democratic system where the electorate relies more on rhetoric than on real issues. When Julius Dorphang contested the election from Mawhati, the electorate should have asked him why he joined the HNLC and how many killings he ordered and how much money he has made through extortion. But they did not do so possibly because the inducements were such that their mouths were shut up. That’s what elections are in Meghalaya! If you have money you have the votes. Only in rare cases does money fail to work and good legislators are elected.
It is rightly observed that we get the government we deserve. In this case would it also be correct to say that we get the Home Minister we deserve? The man is brazen enough to state that the law should take its own course as far as the rape case is concerned. But the rape and trafficking happened at his son’s guest house. Are we to believe that he is oblivious of the fact that the guest house makes its money through a prostitution racket? Normally, Home Ministers are expected to preside over law and order so that our lives are secured. Here we have a Home Minister whose family member is running a brothel in the guise of a guest house. How safe are our young women and girls then? Can we say that Shillong is any better than Bengaluru where women were groped and molested on New Year’s Eve? There may not be large scale molestation in Shillong but many other crimes against young girls and women happen here surreptitiously and are not reported.
The case is now getting murkier. How can a legislator abscond? Are the police so ill equipped to find out his whereabouts? Do they really not know where Julius Dorphang is holed up? In that case our police are either not adequately trained or have been told to hold their horses since the case is a hot potato. It is sad that people in positions of authority should get away with heinous crimes. And this is not Dorphang’s only crime. He and his henchmen were involved in land grabbing cases in the coal mines of Jaintia Hills. The man had earlier treated the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) as his fiefdom and all contract works had to be given to him after he had created a mafia of sorts. Frankly speaking one wonders why the system is so kind to surrendered militants. Aren’t these the characteristics of a soft state? What is the difference between a terrorists and an insurgent anyway?
There are many liberals who defend insurgents and call them “freedom fighters” a la Che Guevara. But Che had a vision of his country. People like Dorphang have a tunnel vision which includes only their selfish interests. That the Khasi people thought for a long time that the HNLC would redeem them from corruption and other white collared crimes is a travesty. It is good that they realized sooner than later how deeply criminalized the outfit is and how they have no compunction about killing anyone who does not comply with their extortion demands. I hope we have not forgotten how Rajesh Saigal of Saigal Automobiles, a motor spare parts dealer was shot dead in broad daylight by what was then the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council (HALC). Internal dissensions led to the break-up of the outfit – the Khasi insurgents forming the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) and the Garo groups forming the Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC). Dorphang was the brain behind the HNLC from its very early days. It is therefore unthinkable that when he decided to surrender because things had become too hot for him in the jungles, he was given general amnesty. Not only that. He was provided state security which included gunmen who guarded his life and never left him for a moment even when he entered the state secretariat. We used to be shocked to see these security personnel with their AKs guarding a person who had once challenged the authority of the Indian State and was responsible for dozens of crimes. How on earth can such a person be absolved of all his crimes? Is there any justice in this country?
And now we see the result of that privilege granted to Dorphang. It’s a different matter that he was given the ‘privilege’ of being a legislator. This legislative immunity has given him the sense of impunity to commit any kind of crime over-ground. This is a very dangerous precedence and it happens because we as voters do not protest such serious anomalies in the criminal justice system. When Julius Dorphang surrendered in 2007 we should not have allowed the Government of the day to play politics. But none of us spoke up or protested when Dorphang was absolved of all his crimes and was treated like a VIP. We watched in shock but were stunned into silence.
As someone who had opposed the HNLC from its early days through a civil society group named “Shillong We Care,” I am deeply dismayed by the behavior of our politicians who have no qualms about cavorting with a former militant just because they see an opportunity to win an assembly seat. Well, Dorphang is not the only one. There are others as well who are now in the Khasi Hills District Council (KHDC). I see this as a mockery of democracy and the justice system. Many times I have written that the judiciary should take suo-moto action and not allow politicians to fish in troubled waters by granting amnesty to insurgents who have shot and maimed so many without mercy. Will the judiciary rise to the occasion? If not, we are left to the mercy of a decrepit political establishment whose propensity to capitalize from every opportunity, no matter how anti-people it is, is more than evident.
And just for the purpose of raising the red flag, where it should be, may I ask what the Meghalaya State Women’s Commission is doing in this case of rape of a minor girl? Is this only the brief of the Child Protection Council? Should not all forces join hands to fight for justice for a girl/woman abused with impunity? Why is the Women’s Commission so silent? Or are they on vacation, this being vacation time? If all the institutions created for the protection of women, don’t stand together at this crucial juncture then it is better that they are dismantled because ultimately they become mere officious designations serving no useful purpose.
Trafficking is a real issue in Meghalaya and it has been going on for a while now. Those at the helm of this trade need to be booked under appropriate sections of the law so that they are not granted bail so easily.
And now about hotels and guest houses in and around the city which are proliferating like mushroom. It is time for the police to conduct surprise checks on such establishments since many of them seem to have come up only for the purpose of prostitution. It is not surprising that so many from the neighbouring states come here on weekends to release their libidos. Shillong is not the place for vicious rakes and philanderers and it should not carry that label.
Meanwhile there must be social pressure on the police to find Dorphang and let him face the consequences of his actions. And as for the Home Minister, it now depends on the Chief Minister to decide whether the present incumbent is fit to hold this post after all the unsavoury incidents linked to his name by association.