By Albert Thyrniang
The five month administrator’s rule of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) will come to an end in mid-April when the election to the Council will be held on April 9 and results declared four days later. Post elections a new executive committee will man the council, a new Chairperson, a new Chief Executive Member (CEM) and fresh faces in the Executive Committee will be in charge of the Autonomous Council. But will it be any different? Will the ills that have long dogged the council be ever treated?
The financial rot in the Council is in deep gorges. How on earth are the salaries of the employees pending for three years? The two month ‘pre-Christmas’ promise last year has turned out to be a lie as scores of employees still find their bank accounts empty. Not only have Christmas and New Year festivals gone past; the current financial year too will slip by. Even without the burden of paying the 30 MDCs for five months the Council couldn’t clear two month’s remunerations. No wonder the Non-Gazetted Employees Association (NGEA) has decided to boycott the upcoming elections. GHADC seems unredeemable.
Late last month the state president of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Saleng Sangma on called on ‘educated people’ to purge the mess in GHADC saying that there is something really wrong in the institution. Reportedly he made a loaded statement that it is unbelievable how employees have been surviving without salary for the past three years. Does it imply that employees themselves are involved in corruption in the Council? Does it mean that they are surviving out of a leakage in the Council’s revenue? Someone pointed out that some employees are constructing houses. How do we explain that? Perhaps through loans? But do banks not come hard on customers who default monthly repayments for three years? Anyway the flip side is that the man who wants to cure the gravely ill GHADC is from a Party that is contesting only in two-three constituencies. The intention is commendable but three councillors (presuming all of them win) won’t be able to clear the GHADC’s massive mess.
The NCP chief also prophesied that his would-be MDCs might abandon him and switch to other parties once the elections are over to become EMs in a stitched coalition. The absence of the anti-defection law has facilitated changing of political colours that has been on display in all three ADCs in the state. The party/alliance that rules the state rules ADCs as well through defection.
Prior to 2018 Assembly elections Congress was in power in GHADC. But soon after the NPP-led-MDA government was installed in March the Congress EC collapsed as Congress MDCs crossed over to the NPP fold. In the 2015 elections NPP, with 10 seats, formed the Executive Committee only for the Congress who was in power in the state, after effecting defection in the NPP camp, to return to power two years later in 2017.These are only two instances. No one can keep track of the drama of toppling games in ADCs, GHADC included. Instability is the hallmark of these institutions. Ideology, loyalty and respect for the electorate are alien in the institutions that are supposed to be the cradle for tribal values.
Now the Congress, it looks like, is the spokesman of the masses summing up peoples’ sentiments against the NPP for the ‘rampant corruption’ and hence currently ‘ruling leaders’ deserve to be thrown out of GHADC. The grand old party may well succeed in dethroning the NPP because memory is very short. In 2015 the Congress lost the election because of the alleged blatant and massive corruption in their administration. The whole Executive Committee, including the Chairman, the Chief Executive member and practically all sitting Congress MDCs bit the dust. During its reign there were multi-crore scams in toll-gate bidding and illegal trade. RTI findings revealed siphoning off from Council’s schemes. A one-man Judicial Inquiry Commission was instituted by the state government only to gather dust in District Council Affairs department till today.
Now life has reached a full circle. After five years, the Congress which lost power due to allegations of corruption might regain power by accusing the NPP of corruption. Sounds surreal! Looks like rotation of corruption! People remember only the latest malpractices! The alleged malpractices during the Congress regime are forgotten. Only the malpractices during the NPP administration are noted. The NPP leadership, after taking over GHADC reign in 2015 promised a clean administration while assuring a probe into corruption charges in the previous Congress rule but has ended up in the soup for the very same kind of scams. On April 9, the national party will have to answer for the‘ghost bridges and footpaths’, ‘duplication of several projects’, the ‘Rs 5 crore for a two episode documentary’,the ‘exorbitant rates for radio jingles’ and the ‘high quotation for official building repairs.’ Unfortunately, no one will demand a probe into the post 2015 corruption allegations.
The BJP which is responsible for RTI revelations in the GHADC scam will also fight the elections on the anti-corruption plank. Kudos for the red flag but is the saffron party serious about bringing out the truth? It has talked a lot. It has strained its relationship with NPP in the process. It has threatened to quit the MDA. It approached its top leadership. But nothing has come out of it. So the motive may not be to unearth corruption in GHADC but to have a base to launch the elections portraying itself before the voters as an alternative party that mean business. Will the Party gain mileage from the issue it has gone hammer and tongs at for the last few months? Wait till April 14.
Do we wish a change in GHADC? Do voters desire a transparent admiration? Does the electorate want the mess to be cleaned up? Yes, but is there a choice? Will the Congress do it? Will the NPP do it? They have non-envious records to back them up. Will the NCP do it? Numerically impossible even with lofty ideals! Will the BJP do it? Arithmetically unsure! They may play the anti-corruption card and fight the elections on the transparency bandwagon but the perceived anti-minority tag with CAA and the current negative view on the central government in this regard as the background, the Party might not fare well enough to transform the sick GHADC.
As democracy is imperfect we have to be content with what we have. With no option the Congress and the NPP will battle it out for the number one spot with all things being more or less equal. Neither is a saint. The parties branching out from the same tree line have turned bitter political rivals. Each has accused the other of corruption. Each is guilty of imposing administrator’s rule in GHADC. Each has charged the other of delaying elections to the ADC. Garo Hills will have to make the choice on the D-day and wait to see who will be in power for the next five unsure years.
The NCP and the BJP may come out with one or two councillors each.GNC could do a little better in comparison to the duo. Do we need to speak of other players, namely the Khasi-Jaintia Hills centric regional parties? Not worth giving any space here for these minor entities who compete only in their own dens. HSPDP has already informed its non-participation. There is no need for PDF and KHNAM to venture out.
This leaves only the UDP for consideration. Formed in 1997 (as a web portal describes) ‘with the aim to restore the prestige and glory of the state when it was in its formative years, and to fulfil the aspirations of the residents of the state for an effective and corruption-free government’ the Party has managed to occupy the chief minster’s chair for short terms in 1998, 2000 and 2008. In spite of the ‘achievement’ the party which amalgamated the Hill Peoples’ Union and The Public Demand Implementation Convention has remained rooted in Khasi Hills. Earlier it did win a couple of seats in GHADC but it did not bother to expand its presence and now it is practically non-existent in the western half of the state that will go to the polls. No one will bet for Meghalaya’s largest regional party to taste any victory in any of the 29 constituencies. It does not see Garo Hills as fertile soil and hence continues to remain in the well of 36 Assembly segments and 29 seats each of KHADC and JHADC.
Will we see the same old story in GHADC? Will any one write a different script? Who will determine a new destiny for GHADC? Other than fulfilling a constitution requirement will the elections bring any positive change? GHADC needs a thorough surgery? Will we have a surgeon or a team of surgeons to do the incision?
PS: I notice the names of a couple of friends in the published list of a particular party. Wish them all success.
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