In Meghalaya pressure groups don’t take up issues of corruption. Only in the year 2000-2001, did some civil society groups come together to blow the whistle on the attempted sell-out of the Meghalaya House at Russell Street Kolkata. The group that called itself Peoples’ Rally Against Corruption (PRAC) was able to unseat the government of the time and also ensure that the deal signed by between the Government of Meghalaya and Asian Housing Corporation Ltd, where the former would lease out the Kolkata property to the latter for 99 years (which in short was as good as a permanent lease) was annulled. Had the PRAC not intervened, the Meghalaya House at Russell Street would have gone into private hands and become largely a commercial complex with only a few rooms in the rear being in the possession of the Government of Meghalaya. Meghalaya is the first state in this country where a government fell on account of corruption. It is a pity that PRAC now no longer exists.
This time when the BJP alleged that there was large scale corruption in the Garo Hills District Council, the matter was seen as an attempt to settle political scores. The allegations were taken amiss by the MDA Government which turned it into a political issue. Initially the Meghalaya BJP went hammer and tongs at the NPP-led, MDA Government where the Party has two MLAs, one of whom is a cabinet minister. The public was led to believe that the BJP was following in the footsteps of its Pradhan Sewak, Narendra Modi who during his election campaign in 2014 used the much touted phrase, “Na khaunga, na khaane doonga,” (BJP will neither indulge in corruption or allow others to do so). But that was not to be. The BJP that had gone on for months to needle the Conrad Sangma Government has now gone all quiet after their boss in charge of Meghalaya and the Party’s National Vice President came to Shillong and told them to hold their horses. Apparently, the alleged corruption should first be taken up with the Government. This is almost like expecting the Government to admit that there is corruption in GHADC.
That corruption is undesirable is a truism. But in Meghalaya while there is a pressure group for every ill under the sun, there is none to fight corruption. The BJP’s recent moral outrage against corruption is used not to tackle corruption but to settle political scores, now that elections to the GHADC are fast approaching. Elections would have been fought on the plank of corruption but now that the BJP has decided to retire into a shell, has corruption also become a non-issue? If corruption is just a handy tool for politicians to target their opponents then it is likely that Meghalaya will sink deeper into this morass in the coming years.
