That there is no love lost between the two BJP MLAs in Meghalaya is evident from the trading of charges between the two, courtesy the Party mouthpiece. For reasons not easily comprehensible, the BJP has not been able to take roots in Meghalaya. Contenders for the Legislative Assembly have on the contrary opted to join the English version of the Bharatiya Janata Party which translates to National Peoples’ Party (NPP). There is still that aversion for joining the BJP and to consider it anti-minority even when the NPP leadership and the BJP are supping from the same plate both in Meghalaya and Delhi. Never has such a clever stratagem been developed by any Party so far. It serves both the BJP and NPP well, this game of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. At least for as long as it lasts. The NPP has put a spanner in the works by pitting family members against each other. But that is politics. And the NPP knows the game better than anyone else!
It will be interesting to see how this internal wrangling plays out in the BJP camp. AL Hek is an old BJP hand and the Party is unlikely to take the words of one relatively new member too seriously and to take action based on his complaints. In any case why is the concerned MLA cum minister so touchy about his actions being reported in the public domain. He is a public representative and all his actions are publicly judged. There is no such thing as “privacy” for a politician, least of all an elected member of the Legislature. Whether the Speaker of the Meghalaya Assembly was well within his rights to air his views regarding the concerns of the minorities vis-à-vis the BJP’s overtly anti-minority stance is a matter of legislative debate. Also, whether the Speaker should have voiced those concerns before a Presidential candidate coming to seek the support of allies is subject to interpretation. Political observers aver that a resort was hardly the place to take up contentious issues. They feel that if the meeting had happened in the August House then it would have been more appropriate to raise those issues vis-à-vis the BJP. They are of the opinion that what was raised by the Meghalaya Speaker would have been more appropriate had it been taken up formally after Droupadi Murmu is formally elected the President of India.
Whatever be the contentions and varying viewpoints, that single episode at the Orchid Lake Resort has set the cat among the pigeons at least in the BJP camp. It remains to be seen how the BJP veteran, AL Hek emerges from this imbroglio.
