The BJP recently released a documents listing the scams of the MUA Government in its 8-year tenure. The BJP has adopted a smart strategy to remind people of the scams and malfeasance that have tarred the MUA Government which ruled Meghalaya for eight long years. Public memory is notoriously short so the booklet is a good reminder that electing the same government might only exacerbate the matter and corruption would be more entrenched. The Chargesheet leaves no doubt at all that it has been cleverly crafted by someone with a legal mind and who has gone through the CAG reports over eight years. Some of the charges are bound to stick like the Education scam. Prima facie there does not seem to be any evidence to suggest that the police recruitment exercise was also manipulated. But the points related to the PHED are spot on. Crores of rupees have been siphoned off from the PHED over several years. In fact the first big scam in Meghalaya which blew up in the 1980’s was in the PHED. The then PHED minister had to resign his post. But the major players including some senior politicians and businessmen got away unscathed.
What is amusing is that this meticulously documented Chargesheet does not have the name of the publisher which is a mandatory requirement for printing what is very clearly an election-related document. It is surprising that the state BJP would commit such a gaffe considering that it has in its midst a suave and articulate Supreme Court lawyer. What is interesting are the comments of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on the complaint made by the Congress against this Chargesheet. He says the matter will be examined and if found to have violated the Election Code of Conduct then action would be taken on the BJP. But isn’t there such thing as a pro-active attitude? Couldn’t the CEO have take suo-motu action against the BJP before this was pointed out by the Congress?
But even if the CEO takes delayed action the fact of the matter is that the Chargesheet has reached far and wide and is the topic of avid conversations.