By H H Mohrmen
Political parties contesting in the election to Meghalaya State Legislative Assembly are competing among themselves in claiming the honour to be the agents of change if they are voted to power. Almost all the parties joining the fray promise to change Meghalaya in the next five years as if there is a magic wand to do it. The pertinent question whether the parties are serious or is this just empty election rhetoric to fool the people?
Can any party (or for that matter alliance of parties) really bring change in the next five years? Or to begin with, have the parties themselves initiated any change at all? What have the parties done so far which is worth calling a change? Did the parties introduce any change at all since they made the clarion call to bring change in the state? The saying goes that if we want to see change it must begin with oneself.
Let us now see if the parties have ushered any change beginning from the election. The total numbers of candidate contesting the February 27, election to the Meghalaya state Assembly is 370 and for the first time in the history of the state with a matrilineal culture, out of the 370 there is an increasing numbers of 30 women candidates in the fray. The Congress has fielded candidates to contest all the 60 seats in the house, the NPP 52, the BJP 47, UDP 35, PDF 26, NCP 21 HSPDP 13,KHNAM 8, GNC 6 and the 85 other candidates are contesting as independents.
The first question that we need to ask is whether the increase in the number of women candidates contesting the election enough? It is indeed sad to note that in spite of the fact that there are more female than male voters in the state, yet there are only 32 women candidates contesting in the election this time. In a state where majority communities follow matrilineal system where lineage is taken from the mother, out of 370 candidates only 32 female candidates contesting the election works out to only 10 percent of candidature only. We claim that we give equal opportunity to women in the society but why do so few women contest the election? What change have the parties initiated on this front?
Considering that the major regional parties already have a pre-poll alliance the UDP, the HSPDP and GNC together are contesting 54 out of the 60 vacant seats in the august house. The pre-poll arrangement makes the alliance second only to the Congress in terms of numbers of candidates contesting the ensuing election, but the question that begs the answer is what is the alternative that the alliance is offering? Is the alliance any different from the other regional parties or for that matter even from the national parties? Or are they only copying issues from each other without any ideological stances.
Other parties too like Aam Aadmi Party, Lok Janshakti Party, All India Trinamool Congress, Republican Party of India (A) and the North East India Development Party have also fielded candidates in some assembly constituencies. But this is rather a very different election because we already have reports of election related violence across the state. There was a violent attack on the brother of PN Syiem candidate from Mawsynram constituency in the East Khasi hills district; there were reports of election related violence in Nangbah village in the West Jaintia hills district, Sutnga village in the East Jaintia hills district and a live Chinese hand grenade was found from a spare tyre of a Bolero vehicle which belongs to Michael Pakyntein a strong supporter of Congress candidate from Shillong West Constituency Mohendro Rapsang. There are also cases of violence in the Garo hills regions, so one instance that this election is way different from the election in the past is the numbers of cases of election related violence that have occurred in the whole state.
Places like Sutnga already have a history of violence during the election. If the district administration in the area looks at the election history in the district, they would find that the constituency particularly Sutnga village has experienced similar violent incidents in the last 2013 election too.
The election this time is highly sensitive and respective district administrations will have to be on high alert especially in the constituencies where there are reports of violence but this election also marked the sharp rise in the numbers of cases where cash was confiscated from different individuals across the state. Despite the wide publicity made by the Election Commission prohibiting the carrying of cash in the state beyond the permissible limit, yet the flying squad ceased cache of money from different parts of the state!
The other question is, what have the political parties done to control the election related violence? Has any party issued any directive to its cadres to see that there is no violence during the election? What about expenditure what have the parties done to see that there is no extravagant spending during election? Yet we continue to see wasteful spending of money in organising rallies and hiring of vehicles to ferry supporters to and fro.
Despite the violence and the use of money power during election, there are still reasons to be optimistic about the future election in the state. The silver lining in the sky is that certain communities have initiated measures to help clean the election process in the state. Local committee like that of the Dorbar Chnong Panaliar, Jowai took a bold step in prohibiting ferrying of voters from other localities and villages which fall under the 2- Jowai constituency to their localities when the respective candidate campaigns in the area.
The practice now is that candidates irrespective of their parties ferry people every day from their respective places to wherever the candidate is campaigning. In doing so the candidates have to incur huge amounts of money to hire cars and buses to ferry voters from their respective villages to the place where the campaign is. Right now candidates in Jaintia hill are hiring buses even from Assam and each candidate is hiring not less than 8 buses a day. Prohibiting the candidates to bring voters to campaign will help minimise the expenditure they incur during the election because one can do a simple calculation how much it will cost the candidates to hire minimum eight buses a day for more than twenty days.
Another Dorbar Shnong in Jowai which has taken a similar bold step to thwart unnecessary expenditure during election is the Khimmusniang locality. These developments which are initiated by the public not only sets good examples for other to follows but it is hoped that it will also bring major changes in the way the election is conducted in the district starting from the next district council elections in Jaintia hills in 2019.
If all the Dorbar Chnong follow the footsteps of Panaliar and Khimmusniang then the candidates would not have to spend money on hiring buses and cars to ferry the voters from one place to another. When campaigners visit different places there is also the issue of littering because the morning after the campaign one will find that the place is littered from one end to another.
The effort by the Jaintia Journalist Association to provide a common platform for the candidates in the Jaintia hills district to discuss and debates issues that the candidates consider important in their election campaign is another step in the right direction which could help improve election in the state.
In spite of all the bad press about the election campaign, there is a ray of hope that change will take place and in some places change is already taking place. Change can take place not because of the politicians or the political parties but the initiatives taken by the common people.