The allegations that an engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD) of the State Government is joining a political party should become a matter of public discourse. That he intends to contest from constituency considered the most cerebral one is interesting. It is bad enough that government officials already nurse political ambitions and no sooner are they retired than they immediately join a political party and fight elections. By now the public is aware that the rhetoric of “serving the people,” is duplicitous. The whole idea of being in politics is to wield power. And some bureaucrats and technocrats want to enjoy the best of both worlds. This is unhealthy for democracy. But in Meghalaya, the voters seem to ignore these conflicts of interest. Some bureaucrats with an eye on politics use their time in office to either cultivate a constituency using their positions and clout or make enough money to finance their political ambitions. No candidate is so imprudent as to dig into his/her personal savings to fight elections.
Shillong North Constituency already has a beeline of potential candidates with at least three of them being ‘about to be retired’ Government employees. This is where the Constitution falls short of its utility in guarding democracy in this country. In fact, this aspect should have been taken seriously because bureaucrats tend to abuse their positions while in office if they already cast their covetous eyes on politics.
The Opposition correctly drew the attention of the House to the matter of the PWD engineer joining a political party without severing ties with his Department. According to the Meghalaya Service Conduct Rules, 2019, government employees cannot participate in political activities or be part of any political party as long as they are in service. The Opposition urged that action be taken against the PWD engineer or there could be serious ramifications in the future. More government employees will start flirting with politics even while they are in government service. However, what is shocking is that the Rajya Sabha member, WR Kharlukhi was the one who presided over the meeting to welcome the PWD engineer into the National Peoples’ Party (NPP). It seems that the NPP State President is ready to count his chickens before they are hatched. Time and again Kharlukhi has been speaking out of turn on several serious matters and he is likely to brush aside this matter too and ensure that the PWD engineer is able to slip through the labyrinthine rule book.
