By H H Mohrmen
It is not often that the major political parties which are always at each other’s throats would all of a sudden decide to bury their hatchet and join hands in strengthening the Executive Committee of the Council. It was claimed that the Congress’ decision to join the People Democratic Front led Executive Committee of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council is because the prevailing situation demands that the MDCs forego all their allegiances and forget the differences they have to save the “Jaidbynriew.” It is said that the MDCs need to come together to work as one unit because the Jaidbynriew is in a grave danger.
The reasons given by the MDCs that the aligning and realigning of their allegiance to protect the interests of the tribal community in the prevailing situation sounds convincing but is hard to believe. The question is: why is this sudden surge of love for the Jaidbynriew among the MDCs? If there indeed is a genuine love for the Jaidbynriew why wait till the fag end of the council’s term to unite? What can the PN Syiem-led EC do in seven months that it has not been able to do in the last four years? Is it not true that Syiem spent most of the last four years confronting his bête noire Dr Mukul Sangma and this ultimately cost him his membership to the legislative assembly?
In a democracy a system is considered to be healthy if we have a strong government and an equally strong opposition, yet the question is what change can a one-sided EC bring? What, if in spite of having a united KHADC, the prevailing problem persists? If in spite of all the efforts made by united KHAD Council to protect the Jaidbynriew, it fails to protect the interests of the community, then can we then conclude that ADCs are irrelevant? The truth is the arrangement arrived at was for the interest of the MDCs and not the public per-se. The reason is that all of a sudden it has dawned on the MDCs that they have only seven months left until the elections so they need to make hay while the sun shines. There’s no time to quarrel anymore and within this limited time they must come up with something to prove to the voters that they have done something for the interests of the people.
The other very important question is whether the Congress under the leadership of Dr Mukul Sangma would allow this arrangement to happen. How can the party support the same person it has suspended and who later started his own party and became a strong opponent of the Congress? Is it because like they say, in politics; there are no permanent friends and permanent enemies, or are they cooking something else; the outcome of which, the public will have to wait and see?
In Jaintia Hills in spite of the fact that there is no perceived threat to the tribals in the district yet, the Chief Executive Member was removed and a new EC of the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council was formed. The same MDCs have only elected a new EC in March of this year and Moonlight Pariat was installed as the new CEM but even before the lapse of four months the same MDCs have switched sides and a new EC was cobbled up to create a new EC and new CEM.
In the case of the JHADC, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report has many a time raised questions on the way the Council handles its finances but the same was not even thoroughly or seriously discussed in the House. The Council spends most of its meagre resources in paying salaries to its employees. It is an open secret that JHADC is over-staff and this has hampered the productivity of the employees. JHADC is a sinking ship (jhad) and the fact of the matter is the MDCs should use every available time and energy to save it but that is the least of their concerns.
The Department of District Council Affairs should also be blamed for the way the ADCs function in the state. Take this recent example as a case in point. After Moonlight Pariat had formed his EC and forwarded the file to the DCA for recommendation, for reasons best known only to the DCA, the same took many weeks to do the needful. On the other hand, when Moonlight Pariat resigned as the CEM of the Council, the DCA immediately recommended to the Governor the need to summon the Council and lo and behold within one day the deed was executed. A new CEM was installed and a National Peoples’ Party (NPP) led EC was formed in a jiffy. We will have to wait and see how many days it will take for the same DCA to formalise the newly constituted EC. The DCA is not only playing around with the Councils but it is claimed that the Department keeps in abeyance many pending Bills passed by the Council which only need the Governor’s assent.
About the new CEM, it is known to all that there are at least two pending cases against him but the NPP did not even wait for the outcome of the cases and allowed the same person to lead the EC in the Council. This act of the NPP will also be like a dark spot in its otherwise ‘clean’ image as the Party which is leading the MDA government now.
Moonlight Pariat is also to be blamed for his leadership style and for not being able to keep his flock together not even for six months. He may be the only CEM in the history of the JHADC to hold a record of holding the post of CEM for the shortest term in the JHADC. Why was his term as the CEM short-circuited? Is it because the MDCs in the JHADC, like their contemporaries in the Khasi hills all of a sudden realise that they need to make hay while the sun shines and Moonlight, being the ugly duckling of the MDA government is seen as a stumbling block than a solution for solving the complex problems of the JHADC? The question again is whether his downfall in barely three months is because he does not have the blessings of the DCA or it is because of his own doing?
The fact is the threat to the Jaidbynriew is not from outside but rather from within the system and the most dangerous threat is of having unprincipled leaders and MDCs in the District Councils in particular. We find MDCs not only switching sides at regular intervals but we even have cases of MDCs joining two parties within six months especially during the elections. In the current situation it is difficult to find an MDC who is not a defector because in the last four years, most of them had defected at least once from the original party that they were elected to in the first place.
Even the political parties both regional and national play different games at the ADC level. They align and realign their coalitions despite the fact that the parties have ideological differences which are starkly at odds with each other. And despite being opponents at the state and the national level, in the ADCs it is altogether a different ball game. At the ADC level Congress can work with the NPP which is not possible in the state and Congress by joining the NPP led alliance in the ADC is inadvertently working alongside the BJP which is their enemy number one.
Obviously the only interest of the MDCs or the parties is to hold power in the ADCs for their own vested interests and to ensure that they win the next election. The interest of the Jaidbynriew is not their top priority and this will come to light when the voters ask the MDCs questions in the ensuing District Council elections which will happen in seven months time.