The rate at which people are resigning from one party to join another shows that politics in Meghalaya is bereft of any ideology. Quite a number of contenders for legislative positions including sitting MLAs have resigned from the Congress party, joined the Trinamool Congress and now joined the National Peoples’ Party (NPP). What justification are these turncoats going to give their electorate unless they are also bringing a substantial number of supporters with them? The reason for joining the NPP is a calculated one. First, the Party that has been in power for five years also has the required funds to throw woo voters. There is no such thing as a fair electoral battle fought on issues but on how much a candidate is able distribute largesse. Truth be told, it is a difficult proposition to try and get votes based on an honest appeal to the voters that the candidate will serve the constituency to the best of his/her ability. The electorate have become so calculating that they don’t even shy away from citing a price for their votes. Hence, we get the government we voted for. There is no point lamenting the badly constructed roads, the poor healthcare system, dry water tanks etc., since the MLA has already compensated the voters.
It is said that in a democracy people should have enough education to make informed choices. An informed choice is one where the voter is not under compulsion to surrender his/her freedom of choice to a candidate because he/she has accepted money from that candidate. The distribution of money takes different forms. It can be made to look like a government scheme especially where sitting MLAs are concerned. Mere literacy without the ability to weigh in on politics and what drives it, and, without the agency to question and hold the sitting MLAs accountable is not real democracy. It would be wrong therefore to pretend that Meghalaya has been and will be participating in a democratic process where each vote is carefully considered because the voters understand that their votes will determine the quality of governance in the next five years.
A political ideology is a set of commitments from a political party which aim at the highest good of the voters. An ideology also sets the tone for the political party to pursue those set of values listed as its predominant goals. An electorate has to know what ideology it is rooting for lest that ideology backfires. Is the political ideology of a party respectful of individual and collective rights and freedoms or does the ideology circumscribe only certain rights that voters can enjoy? But forget about the voters, even the candidates don’t read the ideology of the Party they join. And we still expect good governance?
