Patricia Mukhim
Democracy is a word that even dictators love to orate about. Those who run elections in this country also believe they are doing a great job for democracy. After all their work is not to make people understand that democracy is not merely the inking of one’s forefinger every now and again but that it’s a deeper, more fundamental system of governance where people can hold their elected public servants accountable. But are the elected really public servants? Where on earth do servants rule the roost while the masters (electors) are increasingly reaching the status of grave indigence? All of us repeat the phrases such as “Dance of Democracy” and some such hocus-pocus which ultimately is only a lot of noise. The outcomes turn out worse with every election.
Look at those running the present government in Meghalaya. We were all so hopeful that they would focus on governance; put the right people to do the right jobs; take tough decisions; strengthen law and order and address some of the key areas of human development such as Education, Health, Agriculture, Water Supply and Conservation and of course Power Supply. All these aspirations, we realise are not likely to be met any time soon. And guess what? An otherwise proud tribal society, conscious of its intrinsic values; devoid of any sense of hierarchy and believing in a shared history and a shared future is today being reorganised by Democracy. We are now part of a top-down system of command and control. The few in the Government devise plans and programmes that do not even remotely resonate with the people and they ensure the successful coordination of the many around such plans. Do people actually have a voice? You must be stark raving mad to even ask. Poverty ensures that your right to speak up is forfeited.
For the large majority of Indians and Meghalayans, Democracy is a figment. They have never understood it and never will. Words like ‘people’ too are political constructs aimed at deceiving the voters and making them feel important for one single day in five years. Alas, we voters fall in that trap again and again. What politicians try to sell us is Utopia. They know for a fact that solutions to many of the present problems are not available and that any attempt to even speak of bringing justice and equity in development would result in the politician losing the next election. We are therefore victims of this inherent asymmetry in the democratic system. Democracy for a country that is not only diverse but also culturally asymetrical every which way we look at it – from caste to class to religion, is set to fail. Implanting western cultural values into our Constitution has not necessarily made it work in our convoluted polity.
It is no wonder that a sort of apathy has now crept in when it comes to voting. ‘What’s the point of voting someone who will then become a VIP along with his/her family, enjoy the best of life and forget his/her voters until the next election? Over and above, those same VIPs will move around in speeding vehicles with their entourage of security personnel who will even run us down if we are not careful.” That’s the wail one hears today. That’s what democracy has become! Democracy turns the ordinary citizen into a hapless observer of everything that is wrong with it. The very pillars supporting this Democracy are eroded by the absence of accountability. Those heading these pillars of Democracy are beyond criticism. You do that at your own risk!
So what’s there to feel good about elections? Now the debate surrounding the MP elections is not about core issues affecting us in this State vis-a-vis the country. The debate will be about what the Congress MP in his two tenures has done for Meghalaya. While that question needs to be asked and answered the counter question to his rivals this time would be – what do you want to offer the voters that is different and shorn of rhetoric? I recall that when Vincent Pala was MP and a junior minister in the Union Ministry for Water Resources he had complained that State Government officials take their own time to submit schemes to the different departments of the Union Government; that the schemes are often badly conceived and the detailed project proposals (DPRs) are often not done professionally. He had said that as MP he can follow up those schemes and as minister he can try and push his Ministry to take up schemes in Meghalaya provided the DPRs are technically sound. I am not sure that any scheme was implemented by the Ministry of Water Resources between 2009-2014. We had then hoped that the three important rivers of Jaintia Hills that had been poisoned by acid mine drainage and other effluents from the cement industries would be detoxified and restored to their earlier avatar. That never happened. The rivers continue to be dead.
In the next term of 2014-2019, not much was expected from the MP other than the MPLADs of Rs 5 crore a year. The sitting MP therefore might like to give an account of how this amount of Rs 25+25 or Rs 50 crores was spent between May 2009 to February 2019. A report card on every penny spent and the schemes on which they were spent and where, are due to the voters. This should hopefully give us an idea of what the MP has been doing over his ten year tenure in Delhi.
Coming to Ms Agatha Sangma the Tura MP candidate who was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2008 (to fill up the vacuum left by her father after he returned to state politics), and later from 2009-2014 and even became a junior minister in the Ministry for Rural Development, her performance in the Lok Sabha is lacklustre. The Policy Research Studies (PRS) Legislative Research India, which keeps track of all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings show that Agatha Sangma’s attendance during the tenure 2009-2014 was just 49%. Her participation in debates is NIL. Number of questions asked in Parliament – NIL. Private Member’s Bill – NIL. It would appear as if Meghalaya has no problems at all. Or rather that Garo Hills had no pressing issues that needed to be raised in Parliament. In comparison, Vincent Pala’s attendance during the same period is 92%. Number of debates he has participated in – 32. Number of questions asked – 264. Private Member’s Bill – 4.
We send representatives to Parliament to raise issues of importance not just for our state but also those that afflict the region and even the country. PD Rai the MP from Sikkim has the highest number of debates spoken at 70. The national average for debates spoken is 38. Badruddin Ajmal has asked the most questions (320) with Khagen Das from Tripura coming a close second (310). The national questions average is 300. Those interested in finding out how their MPs are performing can go to the PRSIndia website and check out whether their MPs are on holiday most of the time or are actually representing their constituents. It’s high time we had an institution like the PRS here in Meghalaya too to track the performance of MLAs in the Assembly. Then only can we claim to be a Democracy.
An excerpt from the book, ‘How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future’ by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt is a real shocker. The authors say, “Many government efforts to subvert democracy are “legal,” in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy – making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption or cleaning up the electoral process. Newspapers still publish but are bought off or bullied into self-censorship. Citizens continue to criticise the government but often find themselves facing tax or other legal troubles. This sows public confusion. People do not immediately realise what is happening. Many continue to believe they are living under a democracy. Because there is no single moment – no coup, declaration of martial law or suspension of the Constitution – in which the ruling regime obviously “crosses the line” into dictatorship, nothing may set off society’s alarm bells. Those who denounce government abuse may be dismissed as exaggerating or crying wolf. Democracy’s erosion is, for many, almost imperceptible.”
Indeed, when those who elect their representatives are no longer able to hold them accountable for the 5-year tenure and that’s because the electoral process itself is fraught, then the essence of Democracy is lost. What we have is only an empty shell. We are a people without power to check misuse of executive, legislative and judicial privileges. Whither Democracy?