By Patricia Mukhim
This month the MDA Government celebrated 4 years of its chequered existence. Ironically on that particular day, The Shillong Times photographer captured a picture of the Chief Minister’s vehicle parked just beside two women hawkers eking out their livelihood for the day. These gutsy women fighting against all odds live their lives one day at a time. They can’t plan ahead because only those with cash also have the luxury of planning for the future of their children. At the moment the picture is bleak as ever. It’s somewhat like a dystopian nightmare for many of Meghalaya’s citizens. The few that benefit from Government largesse are the only ones that trumpet the Government’s achievements. The others see no flicker of hope.
The recent announcement that Meghalaya has come up with a mining plan following the MMDR Act 1957 and that prospecting for coal is soon going to be underway must delight the coal barons. The rest of us must look forward to a bleaker environment while the black diamond is gouged out of the earth while acid mine drainage continues to pollute the rivers – our only lifeline. People here forget that most of the ministers, the coal barons and mine owners and buccaneer businessmen have alternative arrangements in place and can migrate to safer countries once Meghalaya becomes an unliveable part of the planet. Its all of us who voted for these skilful practitioners of politics – the men and women of expansive personal tastes; some with a variegated political past – who will stew in our own juices.
Often when listening to their sophistry in the Assembly one wonders how seamlessly they don the mask of Jekyll and Hyde. The fact that they can flirt around with the English language gives them the license to flaunt their sophism. Those of us who know empty rhetoric from plain-speak also know that those words are facetious. They are meant to delude the citizenry. Why I say this is because there is no accountability mechanism in the system. One example is the inordinate delay in black-topping the road leading to New Shillong which would have been unacceptable in any other state. No one would tolerate the dust that has now created so much allergies to residents around the area. Yet you find institutions like NEIGRIHMS, IIM, NEIAH and others silently suffering this mess!
If there is just a sliver of hope these days then that’s because we have a Kamikaze squad of Trinamool Congress MLAs who keep the Government on its feet. They have been working tirelessly to study the deficiencies in delivery of various schemes, especially the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and the solid waste management landfill in Ri Bhoi. The PHED Minister tried to be clever by half when asked why at some places PVC or plastic pipes are used to draw potable water to homes while in others the zinc coated galvanised iron pipes have been used. His reply was that the question was too technical to be answered in the House. This is misleading because the House is where the ministers have to give an account of every rupee of public money spent, to the public who are the real rulers of this country. What a farce this is! The MLAs in the Opposition represent the public. Hence every question deserves an answer in the House. Nothing is too technical for us the public to understand. In Garo Hills it was found that in most homes water never flowed from the pipes that were connected to their homes or compounds.
The case of the proposed landfill in Ri Bhoi district is even more curious because the Urban Affairs Minister was indulging in evasion and equivocation. Without a detailed project report (DPR) and without taking the adjoining villages and the MLA of the area into confidence, how can the Government even think of acquiring a landfill or any land for that matter? A landfill while environmentally unsustainable is imperative since there is no alternative as yet. But landfills could pollute water bodies and the soil in the surrounding areas. Hence, they need to be located in areas that are at a distance from human habitations. Unless communities are taken into confidence in planning such a landfill and explained why it is needed, Government will face bottlenecks later on. There is no alternative to transparency in governance. But transparency is always in short supply in the MDA Government.
When the MDA presented its list of achievements it omitted the negatives. These unfortunately pertain to the health status and the welfare of women and children. This is a constituency that does not get the attention of the House. Questions raised are all about spending in key infrastructural sectors. Investment in human development is not a priority.
Onlookers at the performance of this Government tend to go into bouts of depression. The signs of non-performance in critical human development sectors are glaring. Does even a single minister really care about the poor socio-economic indicators in half of the population who are women? Who raised any questions on anemia afflicting 56% of women in the child-bearing age? Who cares about the poor single mothers? All the VIPs strut around in style. They remain untouched by the stark poverty around them. All are drunk with power.
Samuel Adams once said, “Ambitions and lust for power are predominant passions in the breasts of most men.” Patrick Henry admitted to feelings of dread when he contemplated the “depravity of human nature.” Most of those who cogitate on the present state of governance in Meghalaya dread what the future of the next generation will be and the one after them. Most citizens want change but to effect that change there must be a band of dedicated political volunteers who will travel across the state to launch an “Awareness Mission.” If the Government can boast of the Mission Lakadong and Milk Mission then citizens too should start their Mission Election 2023. We cannot allow people to be misled just because they do not have enough information about the performance of their elected MLAs.
The architect of the Indian Constitution, Dr BR Ambedkar was well aware that the Constitution adopted by cutting and pasting from western democracies was ill-suited to Indian democracy with its huge disparities and its caste, class and religious divisions. We see today that the Constitution is being eroded on a daily basis when the rights of citizens to good governance are trampled upon. Ambedkar was aware that a time would come when India would be led by ambitious demagogues. That time has well and truly arrived. The demagogues are our English speaking yuppies and their servile camp followers who follow the money trail.
A governance system that pushes more and more people into the poverty trap and renders more people landless than they were ever before, cannot be equitable. A governance system that patronises the affluent and has allowed a culture of impunity in trade and commerce – such that revenue that should accrue to the government is funnelled into private pockets can only be called anti-people. But even as we rue the many faults of the present Government we don’t see the alternatives emerging. And that is called the tyranny of a Hobson’s choice!