By H H Mohrmen
When I think of the situation of Meghalaya under the Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) government and the leadership of Dr Mukul Sangma, the image that comes to mind goes back to my childhood days when we all read the poem about Casabianca in Khasi. That the poem which we also sang as a folk tune made it easy for kids to remember the poem and also help make it popular too. Almost every kid of my age could sing ‘La pluh ka lieng ki nong iapom.’ Like the young Casbianca, is Dr Mukul Sangma also trapped in a sinking ship ablaze with fire in the middle of the war not knowing what to do?
All alone inside a ship on fire and with no lighthouse in sight, Dr Sangma is in a dilemma, not knowing what to do next. People are talking about the last budget session being boring; that the debates are becoming like a lullaby which only helps cradle ministers get sound sleep inside the august house. How else would a budget session be when there is nothing to look forward to? The future is in total darkness and there is a little that a budget can do to change the state of affairs in Meghalaya with very limited resources. What change can the government bring when in only less than a year the state will go for elections again?
The second term was unlucky for Dr Sangma and like the true story of the Battle of the Nile from which the idea of the poem was borrowed, it looks like everything is working in tandem against the MUA government under the leadership of Dr Sangma. There seems to be no respite on the attacks against the MUA government and government seems to be at loss.
The first attack on the Government was the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ban on extraction and transportation of coal from the state which was like a bolt from the blue and which also took the government by surprise. The MUA government’s major source of revenue suddenly went dry and although the government and particularly the Chief Minister is trying to put up a bold face before the world, the truth is everybody knows that after the ban, the government is finding it difficult to make ends meet. The government’s inability to come up with a policy to convince the NGT to allow mining and transportation of coal to resume also added woes to the already beleaguered government.
As if the NGT ban on coal is not enough, another of government’s major source of revenue from the excise duty on Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) was also affected. The state government’s major revenue earning source was hit hard when the government had to comply with the court order prohibiting operation of any wine shop in the vicinity of schools, churches and adjacent to the highways. Hundreds of wine stores and bars were closed and this in turn affected the revenue earning of the state.
No official leak from any government official is needed to know the truth that the financial status of the state is in shambles, because it is there in black and white. The numbers in the recent budget placed before the house tells the whole story. That the budget is a deficit budget with no indication of any attempts made by the government to revive the economy of the state is also a concern. The budget not only tells us about the current status of financial health of the state but the future of Meghalaya too and the question that begs the answer is; does Meghalaya have a future at all.
The leader of the opposition said that the budget is not forward looking, but the question is, what is there to look forward to when the state is down to being a pauper? How can we look forward when even the place we stand on is crumbling?
Education in the state is on a downslide and the glory of Shillong as the education hub of the North East is fast fading to oblivion. The Chief Minister’s calls to reclaim the educational glory of Meghalaya is a little too late. A layman that I am my opinion is the very fact that the Catholic Church chose to establish the Assam Don Bosco University in Guwahati and not in Shillong itself speaks volumes about our claims. Does it mean that the state does not provide an environment conducive for setting up and running a university in the state? Now Guwahati is way ahead of Shillong in this. They have universities, colleges and all kinds of institutes that one might need. The question is, can we even compete with Guwahati ?
How can we reclaim Meghalaya or the fame of Shillong as an education hub of the region when it took us ages to even plan for setting up a medical college? It is almost a decade now and the proposal to start two medical colleges in the State; one in Shillong and another in Tura is yet to take off. People are talking about digital India but in Meghalaya we are still working at snail’s pace. In Meghalaya the only educational institutions of higher studies that function without glitches are those funded by the Central government be it the NEHU, NEIGRIHMS, IIM or Regional Engineering College in Shillong.
It is easy to boast that we are going to reclaim the status of Meghalaya or Shillong as the education hub of the region, but what kind of institutions are we going to provide? What trades or what streams of studies do we propose to introduce? Are we going to introduce the same run-of- the-mill courses or programs? But the most important question is why would people opt for Shillong? What does Shillong have to offer that the others cities don’t have?
Meghalaya is a sinking ship especially when it comes to tackling of crimes particularly those against women and girls which continues to rise unabatedly. The government does not seem to have any clue on how to slowdown if not stop this crime which is growing every day. Earlier we have heard of rape cases but now the crime is becoming more gruesome, rapist (s) even kill the victims. The police are yet to make any arrests in the two heinous crimes in which bodies of the two victims were dumped at Itshyrwat and Dkhiah. What happens to these horrendous cases? Are we going to forget these cases just because the victims are single mothers and belong to poorer sections of the society?
Low conviction or absence of conviction on crimes against women has not only emboldened the criminals on the prowl to attack women and girls but it has also given rise to pseudo-vigilante group to usurp the space vacated by the police and the prosecutors. There is a growing support (amongst the youths in the cyber space) to the call made by HNLC for recommencement of its operation Kyllang in which the militant outfit punishes alleged rapists on its own term. The group is raising its ugly head again because the government agencies have failed us. The group knows that it only needs to fill the void where state agencies have failed and the government has nobody but itself to blame for all the mess that is happening around.
The state has also failed to exploit Meghalaya’s potential with regard to producing electricity because it was not able to make any headway in the construction of the proposed hydro electric projects in the state. The numbers of educated and non educated youths waiting for employment is growing exponentially every year and MUA has not been able to do anything on this front.
Dr Mukul Sangma is not only leaving his successor an empty coffer with no pointers as to how the economy of the state can be improved. The sad part is that the future of the state is bleak to say the least. The state of Meghalaya is like a sinking ship on fire and the captain is at a loss not knowing what to do next. It is for a new captain to steer the ship clear of all its troubles and hopefully the state and its people will see a better future post 2018.