The HSPDP is a coalition partner in the present Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) Government and anti-incumbency must be attributed to all the coalition partners which includes the NPP, UDP, PDF and HSPDP. None of the coalition partners can wash their hands off any act of mal-governance in the past four years. Some political parties that did not get a share from the booty of illegal coal mining might find the burden of four years of the illegal trade something they might have to explain to their constituents but above all to their political rivals. It is learnt that 2023 will find many young, articulate, conscious and principled contenders to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly who wish to contest not to win but to create mass awareness about the venality of using money to buy votes and how this is taking the state to the doldrums. This will be an election to watch out because it will no longer be business as usual for the old timers who have become too comfortable in their seats and their bluster inside the Assembly. Their behaviour reeks of arrogance and a couldn’t-care-less attitude and a cocksureness that nothing and no one can defeat them.
The question that these young contenders raise is: If a set of people want to serve the constituents as they proclaim they do, then why do they spend crores of rupees and where do these crores come from if not from the public funds because political parties in Meghalaya don’t mobilise enrolment drives where those enrolled pay their annual fees. Also these fresh contenders raise many pertinent questions about the pace of development and where most of the development funds are parked. They are not there just for occupying the seat of power but have a desire to bring change. Whether or not that change can be effected depends on their power to mobilise public opinion and to bring about behavioural change among voters. And therein lies the rub. Voters have been pampered and expect their pound of flesh because they don’t reason that their on each of their votes hinges the fate of Meghalaya and its people and their future.
The HSPDP may not be involved in illegal mining of coal but they are essentially a West Khasi Hills based political party where coal is being regularly mined and transported. Hence they are complicit by the very fact that they say nothing about this malfeasance and continue to turn a blind eye towards this illegality which has claimed several lives by the very nature of the rat hole mining which goes against the MMDR Act, 1957 which the Supreme Court has unequivocally stated that Meghalaya should follow.
