SHILLONG: Former Home Minister Robert G. Lyngdoh asserted that the people should apply their intellect while choosing their representatives and refrain from getting emotional, while speaking at Shillong Talks panel discussion on Tuesday.
The discussion was organised as part of the final SVEEP programme GO Vote which was held at U Soso Tham auditorium on Tuesday. The programme was anchored by Aashna Chaprana of Josh Talks.
The usually outspoken leader said, “Till today, I have looked around during election time and I have seen the elections as, forgive the word, but one big emotional orgy and the intellect is not used at all.”
Further, he said, “It is just feelings and even the candidates and parties are quite happy to keep it at that level.”
He added that there is a huge disconnect between the voter and the voted.
Giving his thought on the present scenario, he said, “I am glad that the election is moving from an emotional process to a very intellectual process. That can be the saving grace.”
Referring to the young panelists, Victoria a mass media student from St. Anthony’s College and Andrew, a student from St. Edmund’s College, Lyngdoh said youths are talking about using the intellect to vote which is a sign for a hopeful future.
On parties putting forth their manifesto,he expressed concern that the manifesto is used only at the beginning of the elections and said, “Once the elections is finished, the manifesto is forgotten.”
He said political parties and their candidates do not discussed the manifesto put forth while the people also don’t question the percentage of promises in the manifesto being fulfilled.
According to him, as election promises get fulfilled, then the engagement of the people will also become better and the ownership that the people talk of the election process will also be better.
He maintained that other “motivations” such as “voting for people of the same clans, exchange of Gandhi’s photographs will not be important any longer,” if election promises of the candidates are fulfilled.
Chief Electoral Officer, Frederick Kharkongor informed that the ratio of young people enrolled to the total population as per the final rolls, represents about 4.6 per cent to 5 per cent of the electorate which when compared to the rest of the country is quite high as the ratio of young people enrolled to the total electorate hovers between 1-2 per cent.
“But in Meghalaya, it is 4.6 per cent. A shout out to the people who have enrolled in large numbers,” he said. On the activities of the Election Commission, he said music is used in a large way for voter awareness.
Speaking about Cvigil, an app which is a tool in the hands of the people to upload any violation of Model Code of Conduct, Kharkongor said people have uploaded videos. About 25-30 cases have been reported through the app.
Stating that the app is gaining traction, he informed that reports are mainly from urban areas showing hoardings, posters. Another panelist, a theologian, Balajied Nongrum spoke about voters developing a sense of responsibility in choosing the representatives. He said there is a need to bring a sense of accountability as to whether the representatives have delivered their goods or not.
RG Lyngdoh performs
Band comprising of visually impaired persons, Light After Dark enthralled the audience with their song and Summersalt also performed.
Robert G. Lyngdoh who also dabbles as a musician, gave an impromptu performance using his mouth organ and performed alongside Summersalt.
