The electricity failure in the Meghalaya State Assembly on March 10, might have been due to the heavy thunderstorm lashing the city but it also portends the darker side of democracy in these unsettling times. The Assembly is a place where issues that plague the state are discussed with the objective of improving the delivery mechanisms of the Government. It is unfortunate that Government read ‘executive’ spends more time defending its actions or rather inaction instead of spelling out what it has achieved in its three year tenure. The big mess that the MeECL is in today has been attributed to the Congress-led MUA Government which is accused of signing a bad deal with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) which has put Meghalaya under a Rs 3225 crore debt burden. This is something that the Congress has not cared to clarify to the public of Meghalaya which is bearing the brunt of regular load shedding. If the MDA is being held to account and regularly scrutinised, why is the Congress silent on its own acts of omission and commission? One thing is clear – no government is without blemish. The public awaits a statement from the present Leader of the Opposition who was also the Chief Minister of the State for the longest time as to why an otherwise astute politician should sign such a flawed deal with a Corporation that would put the state in such a mess – the cumulative impacts of which are being felt today.
Interestingly the Congress MLAs today blame the present Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma for standing up to answer pointed questions directed at his ministers, particularly the Minister for Agriculture & Sports and Youth Affairs, Banteidor Lyngdoh and the Commerce & Industries Minister, Sniawbhalang Dhar. It is a fact that these two ministers are not the most articulate and could perhaps reply better in the local language than in English. But the Chief Minister would not take chances because if they are asked supplementary questions the Government could find itself in the docks. But those who have covered Assembly proceedings will recall that even in the previous MUA regime, Dr Mukul Sangma had to stand up and answer queries directed at his ministers. The same Sniawbhalang Dhar was part of the MUA government. So too his brother Ngaitlang Dhar and between the two of them they did not have the forte to stand up and answer for their respective departments. This is a practice peculiar to Meghalaya. In no other state will the chief minister have to bail out his/her ministers as is happening here. Either the ministers are totally incompetent or it is the CM then and the CM now that also takes decisions on behalf of their departments. This is clearly an ailing democracy!
