In a democratic country like India, the phenomenal rise by a single political party having special attachment to a particular group and ideology will certainly dominate the entire process of making law making and governance. Coupled with the marginalization of other regional parties including national secular parties, there seems to be a disproportionate representation from among the minority groups in the temple of democracy as described by Mr. Modi, in the Indian Parliament after being unanimously elected leader of BJP Parliamentary Party.
Minorities here include all the marginalized groups, the rural folks, the illiterates, the children, etc. The situation is further endangered by the absence of quality representatives either in parliament or state legislatures who can vociferously stir the debate on any matters or motions brought before the House that might directly or indirectly affect the minority communities in the country. Whereas, in the present state of affairs where BJP is dominating the political arena, there is a general perception and fear from among the non-Hindu sections that BJP may impose Hindutva philosophy in the entire country. In this situation, the challenge to such proposition is very weak and the disadvantages and repercussions will be on those regions or states with lesser numbers of representatives in the parliament. But we should have faith in the constitution of the country and in the temple of democracy. And I strongly believe that the principle and spirit of debate within the House is still the essence for the passage of any law or directives.
But to conclude that BJP’s success is solely because of its pro-Hindu strategy is completely wrong and inappropriate. The BJP leadership under Narendra Modi have done their homework very well and know their opponents and the people in general like the back of their hands. Further they have good speakers and apologists who can disseminate their points clearly to the masses and against their opponent. The failure with other political parties is that they are too dependent on the legacy wave of their founders along with the confused leadership because of so many individuals within the party who are merely position and status- minded. They cannot speak the concept and language of the general public and they failed to delve on matters that dearly affected the common citizens who constitute a major chunk of the electoral mandate. For instance, there may be good parliamentarians who may get awards or recognitions, whereas some of them contributed nothing to the process of making law that will also safeguard the interests of the minority groups.
Minority voices should be echoed regularly in Parliament. Only then will something happen. But when an MP writes to the Prime Minister for any special consideration what does it means? This reflects a situation that an elected member has exhausted all strategies and wisdom that should be followed to communicate inside the House in order to obtain satisfactory and result-oriented answers. But submitting petitions outside the House is like equating himself to an outsider and made him redundant inside the House as elected member. By common sense, the Prime Minister or Chief Minister is statutory responsible for the development of the entire country or state. Therefore, any action or inaction by this Constitutional head is to me held accountable in the House and subjected to questions and queries from any member. By writing letters to the Prime Minister like any common citizen, it only makes the PMO (Prime Minister Office) officials busy in filing letters and documents. On one hand it is another trick to fool the electorate who are presumably ignorant. With due respect to our MP, Vincent Pala, a crore-pati who can even hire an Oxford or Cambridge University to draft a good letter with powerful contents to catch the Prime Minister unawares, he should have instead generated a more pro-active debate and display of concern inside the House. In this way he will do justice to the people and to the role that has been entrusted to him.
On the contrary, if there is anything that will make the Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi to consider some development for North Eastern States, it will be strictly on the basis of his Party’s strategy and goal to capture the region. Nevertheless, Pala’s letter will serve as an eye opener for the PM to prioritise development in BJP’s ruled states only i.e. Assam and Manipur. The Parliament and other legislative bodies are established in a democracy in order to activate a deliberative process of making law and policies. Shillong has elected a representative belonging to a national party with the fervent hope that the representative will exert some influence through his Party and draw the attention of the Government towards the plight of the region and state which is lagging behind in many areas. But unfortunately, the Congress party too has fallen from the grace and is itself fighting for survival. Any attempt by a Congress member today to push any agenda will yield no substantial results and in this case an Independent member would be better off because his privileges of being Independent is still better recognized if one takes seriously the definition of the Prime Minister about Parliament or the House of representatives.
As it appears, the Congress leadership will not entertain suggestions, views and resolution for any particular section or community because their primary focus as of now is not on development but on rejuvenating the Party. Therefore, when there is no one else to defend and fight for our state and region, we should blame ourselves because in the first place we have failed to differentiate who is a nation builder and who is not before voting for that person. A nation builder is a person who builds his house from scratch and not the one who purchases a readymade one. The plight of our state Meghalaya is uncertain; it will continue to be ignored and neglected. This is mainly because in the Parliament we do not have apologists and at the State level our political leaders are divided on many grounds and are individualistic in nature.
BJP has a long term mission to sustain and retain itself in the political dominion and to replace the Congress which has dominated for so many decades. To achieve that it is important for the Party to capture every single state to the extent that there is very little opposition against it. When that situation happens, perhaps democracy too will be interpreted strictly from their philosophy and political ideology. Therefore, there is a need to have representatives who are intellectually capable to tackle these strategic moves. The world is becoming more and more dependent on technology and no one can escape from its purview. Whereas in our situation, our elected representatives are making the people dependent on them rather than making the people self-reliant on matters that concern their lives and livelihoods. How far can the leaders help and protect their constituents materially or monetarily if not by the appropriate system of law and standardized policy or projects? The system of patronage democracy has got to end. Only then can Meghalaya move forward! But will that ever be allowed to happen?