By H H Mohrmen
The inevitable has happened. The Mukul camp in the Congress has finally quit the party and joined the All-India Trinamool Congress. Politics in the state took a new turn when Dr Mukul Sangma finally decided to bid the Congress goodbye. That Mukul Sangma is a tall leader and has the support of many who are close to him, is proven from the fact that apart from the four MLAs who are members of his own family, eight more Congress MLAs had joined him in decamping the INC. It looks like the best of the legislators in the Congress party have faith and trust in his leadership and supported him in the move that he made.
No Democracy in the Grand Old Party (GOP)
The question that everybody has is – why now? Yes, some would ascribe the reason for his abandoning the Congress ship, to the appointment of the new president of the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee without following due democratic process. To the surprise of Congressmen and women the incumbent just landed in Shillong one fine day with an appointment letter to the post. No doubt the main reason for defection or rather the last straw that lit the fire was the undemocratic way of electing the state President of the Congress. The inability of the party to democratically elect its national President is also being read by the voters in so many different ways and this is killing the Congress party slowly. The party has been in turmoil and has been on a downward slide since 2014, and this was evident when it has not been able to engage in a democratic process to elect its own party president. How can the party talk about democracy when it is not even able to practice what it preaches?
But the main reason why Dr Mukul Sangma left the Congress is that nobody wants to work with the Congress any longer. In his interview with Iban Mawrie of the Shillong Times, he cited the example of the Congress being the single largest party in the 2018 election, but it could not form the government because nobody is willing to work with the Congress party anymore. The image of the Congress in the state has been on a decline for a few years now and in one fell swoop the status of the party changed from the single largest party in the state Assembly to a party with only five MLAs.
The Congress
without Mukul
Dr Mukul Sangma’s detractors would try to put up a brave face and call the defectors as bad apples. They hope that the Congress will now bounce back because of Mukul’s departure and they blame him for the Congress’s downfall in the state. To some extent this is also true, Prestone Tynsong, Sniawbhalang Dhar, Commingone Ymbon, Lahkmen Rymbui defected from the Congress just before the 2018 election and joined the NPP and UDP respectively. But the other truth is also that without Dr Sangma the Congress literally has no presence in the Garo hills. Now the Congress will have to fight it out with all the parties for the votes in the Khasi Jañtia region only.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
For Vincent H Pala his effort to bring back his guru and mentor in politics into the party’s fold is a case of what they say in Pnar “beh ïei wa her, ieih ïei wa dem” (chasing the flying bird but ignoring the one that’s not moving). Despite the fact that DD Lapang had categorically stated that he is happy with being the adviser to the present CM, yet this did not deter Pala and his women’s league to woo the grand old man of Meghalaya politics to rejoin the party. One fails to understand the kind of influence or magic that Lapang has that at his age, the Congress would desperately want him to rejoin the Congress. How can he alone be able to change the fate of the party, but the outcome is now clear. Pala ignores the birds in the hand for the one in the bush. Hopefully Vincent learns his lesson albeit the tragic way.
Pala and his “Et tu
Brutus moment?!”
Vincent Pala being an engineer by profession would perhaps not be familiar with the famous last words made by Julius Caesar when he was assassinated in the famous play by William Shakespeare named after Julius Caesar himself. In the Act 3 Scene 1 of the play, Caesar could not believe his eyes when he saw his friend Marcus Junius Brutus was also part of the conspiracy to kill him. He uttered the tragic words “You too Brutus?!”. In this case Pala too could not believe that another Congress stalwart Charles Pyngrope would desert the party. Perhaps Pala needs to work harder to learn the tricks of the trade that in politics there is much more than what meets the eye. The most important lesson from many whom he had betrayed in the past is, people may forgive him, but they do not forget.
Mukul and his leadership
No doubt Mukul too has his flaws, but it cannot be denied that he had shown exemplary leadership when he was the Chief Minister of the state. When I was asked who amongst the three contenders would you consider to be the best candidate for the office of the CM of the state? The first thing that came to my mind was the MUA M-Tab that the government had distributed to all the class 11 and class 12 students in the state. For at least two consecutive years the MUA government during Mukul’s tenure as the Chief Minister ensured that all class 11 and 12 students in the state received the M-Tab. You may ask why and how this is connected to Mukul Sangma being a good leader. In the last two years the pandemic has affected the students’ studies but imagine the changes that these M-Tabs with inbuilt syllabus bring for the students of Classes 11 and 12. The Tabs would have been a great help to the students particularly those who study class 11 and class 12 science who were also preparing themselves for NEET and JEET.
The pandemic has hit the poor parents in the state very hard and apart from having to feed the family, they were compelled to buy smart phones for their kids’ online classes. These Tabs would hardly cost Rs 5000 and that would be much cheaper than the smartphones that the parents of the students had to buy for their kids. It would have been a great relief to the poor parents if the government had continued to supply these tabs to the students. In a way Mukul saw what was going to happen and was way ahead of his time. More importantly he had the interest of the students close to his heart.
Conrad basking in
Mukul’s legacy
The government went gung-ho to celebrate the Cherry Blossom festival which was started by Dr Mukul Sangma. The MUA government also promoted arts and literature by promoting Arts and Literature festivals like CALM festival during its tenure. The other innovative development approaches, the foundation of which was laid by the Mukul Sangma-led MUA government was the Basin Development Agency. The various Basin development agencies have become platforms from which the government implemented the different projects supported by World Bank, JICA, IFAD and other financial institutions and agencies. In fact, Conrad’s new programs like FOCUS and PRIME also operated using the various Basin Development Agencies’ platforms.
Mukul’s Dynastic Politics
One thing that Mukul cannot fault the Congress for, is the dynastic aspect of the party, because he is also playing the same game. Till today he has three of his family members as MLAs in the state legislative assembly. Mukul and the other Sangma from Garo hills are starting their own political dynasty in the Garo hills region of the state. This has also encouraged the Dhar family to do the same thing in the Khasi Jañtia hills region of the state. Till date three members of their family are in the legislative assembly. Dr Sangma may be a good leader but promoting only his family members in politics is not good for democracy. In spite of the fact that dynastic politics is bad for the state, Mukul Sangma’s dynasty will stay for at least another five- year term. Dr Sangma is indeed a game changer and since politics is unpredictable, Mukul Sangma still has a big role to play in state politics.
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