By HH Mohrmen
Off late the two national parties have been in the forefront of organising mega rallies to drum up support for their respective candidates. This is the first time in the history of the state that such rallies are organised even before the Election Commission could make a formal announcement of the election dates in the state. Earlier big election campaigns were organised only when the Prime Minister of the country came to canvass for the party’s candidates, but now mega rallies are organised everywhere. This time not just the national parties have organised mega rallies in different parts of the state, but recently even one of the major regional parties has also organised a similar mega rally in Shillong.
The objective of organising such mega rallies is obviously to bring the maximum number of crowd to in one place. The effort is, to, as much as possible bring as many people as they possibly can to the rally. This is precisely because it is a kind of show of strength for the parties or the candidates to display the kind of support that he or she has. The general hope is that it will help swing the votes in their favour- but organising big rallies no doubt comes with a big price tag.
It costs money to mobilise people to join the rally and it does not come cheap either, because the expenses come in many forms. They start from the moment the person leaves his home and because it is practically impossible to walk from one place to another there is cost of transportation. The cost of ferrying people to attend the rally both to and fro constitutes a major chunk of the expenditure. In some cases apart from spending for all the logistics; the organisers have to even compensate the one who attends the rally the equivalent of their daily wage, just to bring more crowds to the meeting.
The cost of making the pandal and sound arrangement is miniscule when compared to the conveyance cost and the compensation of an equivalent of a day’s wage to each and every attendee. So the pertinent question is how much does it cost to organise these mega events and who is going to foot the bill? Perhaps this is also the reason why these rallies were organised before the Election Commission makes a formal announcement of the election dates, to avoid having to include this in the election expenses of the candidates or the party.
There are a few lessons to take back from these mega rallies. The first pertains to the mental make –up of the voters who abandon their daily chores to attend those rallies. It makes them perfect targets for the candidate/s to exercise their patronage on since they are unthinking constituents looking for an outing and a joyride. Tribals have been known to be hard working but the rallies during elections have only made them indolent and look out for a free trip with lunch packets as an added bonus. The locals use the term ‘Iar-malai’ or birds which live only on the benevolence of others to describe those rally attendees. They have become like tools that the politicians and the political parties use to play with. In a world where there is so much competition in the individual pursuit for wellbeing, it should have been the so called leader’s duty to educate the masses to make the best use of their time, but instead they are encouraged to fritter away their very scarce resource only for the interest of the politicians.
Secondly, these days event managers makes money by manufacturing crowds to attend such rallies. They will make their quick buck by using the people for their own vested interests without considering the impact that it is going to have to them in the long run. As always it is the voters who have (literarily) been taken for a ride. They have been fed and carried to different rallies but after the election is over they are left high and dry.
In some ways the voters themselves are to be blamed for this. However, politicians with short terms interests also ought to also take the blame for fooling the poor voters. But it also raises a very important question about the kind of leaders that we have now. These are leaders who misuse and abuse the love and trust that the people have bestowed on them, only for their own selfish interests.
If this trend continues then contesting elections will be a much more expensive affair in which only the rich can afford to indulge. Any event manager will agree that it costs several lakh of rupees to organise such rallies and that too for just one rally. Can we then expect a poor but intelligent candidate to dare contest the elections in the future? The other alternative is that anybody who plans to contest the elections will have to accumulate enough money to squander during the campaign period. This is the kind of election scenario of Meghalaya and it is likely to get worse in the days to come if the Election Commission of India does not put a stop to this extravaganza.
As educated, responsible citizens of this state we must do something to stop this madness. We must educate our fellow citizens so that they will not fall prey to these kinds of enticement. And yet it is precisely in these kinds of rallies that the politicians talk about programs and schemes to help the poor farmers and the rural folks of this state. How can they help these rural poor if they are not even helping them manage their own time properly to begin with?
The educated section of the population of this state cannot remain mere spectators and allow this to pass as if nothing has happened. We must engage ourselves in the election process not to canvass for certain candidates but by simply making people aware of their rights and responsibilities as citizens of this great country. We can no longer say that we are not interested in politics anymore because if we are not canvassing for any party or candidate we can at least prevent people from being duped by politicians who are only concerned about their own interests.
We must see that this problem is nipped in the bud or else we will be failing in our duty as citizens of this democratic state if we just stand and wait for change to happen. We must do something and it could be as simple as talking and making our domestic helpers aware of the election process and their duties as citizens or talking about this important issue in the church, the various meetings or durbars that we attend. Better still we can start talking about it in the places where much of the talking happens and that is at the homes of the bereaved families when especially the make members have the habit of discussing politics.
The goal is to first of all make people aware that this sort of politics is not acceptable and it is not just. It is not going to do any good for the public at large of the development of the state. It is nothing but fooling people. A small state like Meghalaya can’t afford mega rallies.