By Patricia Mukhim
Crisis of democracy arises when the political objectives clash with the principles of good governance. Elections are meant to elect a group of public representatives who will then take on the task of policy making and implementation through the bureaucracy. Today elections have become an end in themselves. After people are elected they no longer feel they can be held accountable for anything. The reason for this debasement of democracy is because elections have become very expensive and votes have to be bought. It’s a fact that cannot be denied so people should not even flinch at hearing this. Ask each MLA how much he/she spent in the 2018 elections. You will be shocked. Now people no longer elect MLAs/MDCs because of the person’s merits. If merit was the yardstick then those using politics for business would have been rejected outright. The use of euphemisms to define money that is used to buy votes does not take away from the ignobleness of the act. In fact, elections in India today are all about using money power to the hilt, irrespective of the political party. Meghalaya being part of that stinking electoral system, which has all but throttled the idea of governance, cannot but follow the same trajectory. And we are seeing the viciousness of bad governance playing out before our eyes.
One of the hallmarks of good governance is the rule of law. When the rule of law operates without distinction then the citizenry feel safe. But the rule of law in Meghalaya has been compromised a long time ago. It has eroded our faith in the system. If there was rule of law, then illegal coal mining and transportation would not have happened after the NGT ban of 2014. The fact is that some Deputy Commissioners tried their best to prevent both illegal mining and transportation of coal from the various districts of Meghalaya. Some of them were transferred out at the behest of the coal lobby, and, more pliable civil servants intended to serve the interests of the coal barons were posted in strategic coal mining districts. East Jaintia Hills is a shining example of how this was done. The coal barons have for a long time wielded power over the government. And governments past and present have prostrated before them.
This time after the mining tragedy happened in East Jaintia Hills under the watch of the DC, Fredrerick Dopth and the SP, S Nongtynger, any government with some ethical grounding would have transferred them immediately or even suspended them from service for failing to check illegal coal mining or for allowing it to carry on under their very noses. Both have failed in their duties. However, if they have been instructed by politicians to allow this illegal mining to happen, then they should have had the spine to call out those politicians. After all, the bureaucracy is created to serve the public, not the political class. But here one sees too many spineless individuals as civil servants and police officials. They have entered the service not for serving the public but to serve themselves and their political masters. Add to this nexus the so-called pressure groups that have never raised as much as a sigh against illegal coal mining and transportation, and you have a potent cocktail and a recipe for killing the state by degrees.
The DC, East Jaintia Hills does not even have a modicum of decency in how he addresses this present issue. He directs the family members of those trapped inside the mines to come and receive the interim relief of Rs one lakh. Perhaps he believes that if those relatives receive the money they would not then dare to raise a stink at the utter incompetence of the district administration in handling the whole rescue operations. Those relatives have not lost hope and it is the duty of the administration to disburse the contingency money to them with dignity and respect for their feelings; not by making them feel he is their benefactor (Mai-baap). The utter lack of empathy is galling. And the DC had the audacity to proceed on leave during the course of the rescue mission when he should have been supervising the whole mission 24×7. What kind of rescue operation is it that is abandoned for want of equipment? For that alone the DC should have been hung out to dry. Alas! The Chief Secretary is too kind a man to sanction his leave and also to watch the whole rescue mission going awry.
The less we speak about the political class the better. Look at the Shillong MP Vincent Pala. When he got the rare opportunity to raise the issue of the mining disaster and the trapped miners in Parliament vide a zero hour motion so as to kindle the conscience of the entire House and get all the support he could to fast track the rescue mission, the man sunk to the lowest depths by pushing his own agenda. He wanted rat hole mining to be legalised. This surely must be the worst instance of personal aggrandisement trumping public service. And the irony is that the people of 1 Shillong Parliamentary constituency might still elect this man because he will buy the votes of the poor and he will promise the mining barons to lift the ban on rat hole mining. Both these tactics are designed to win votes. Let’s not forget that it’s the poor (the Khasis call them kup shiliang, sem-shiliang) who have the energy and enthusiasm to indulge in the five yearly dance of democracy. That’s the time freebies come their way and free meals too. And the numbers of such people are growing in our state. I was appalled to learn that quite a number of Khasi people today can’t even afford a meal and have to queue up for a free meal from some do-gooders. Such is the plight of a people who once were proud and dignified and would not succumb to freebies out of a sense of shame. That’s all in the past now.
And then what about the political parties in Meghalaya and their reactions to the mining tragedy? What does the NPP as a party have to say? Have they lost their voices? Are they shocked? Or embarrassed to have been caught lying about illegal coal mining? What about the raucous BJP? Does this Party find its voice only during elections? And have any of the regional parties even expressed their views on this issue? Why not? Is it because most of those trapped are non-Khasi/Jaintia and in fact nearly all of them are Muslims who we have learnt to hate if not to fear? Clearly we have exposed our deep communal biases in this tragic incident. But we still celebrated Christmas as if Christ promised to come and save only those who go to church and call themselves Christians but will not balk from stealing public money the rest of the week. How shallow is our understanding of the Christ of the Bible. So much so we have reduced Christ to the level of our own pettiness.
Christians in the Government and in politics have been lying through their teeth about the existence of illegal coal mining. This was also the story told in the Supreme Court after which the Court ruled that 1.76 lakh MT of coal extracted before April 2014 can be transported up to January 31 this year. When people lie in a court is that not perjury? And by the way which part of Meghalaya is this coal going to be transported from? Who has inventorised it? How much coal is lying in which part of Meghalaya? How is the break-up done? Isn’t this whole thing a big scam?
The less said about the Sangma brothers the better. They hold the two top departments which are the fulcrum of governance but both seem rather clueless on what sort of emergency measures to deploy in the mine rescue operations. This was one opportunity they had to show their capability to handle a disaster. Alas the Government itself is a disaster.