By Patricia Mukhim
At no time in Meghalaya’s political history has the Congress done so badly as in the 2023 Assembly polls where it got just 5 seats. The Congress is one of the oldest national parties in these hills. In the first State Assembly polls in 1972, the Congress got 9 seats while APHLC got 32 seats. In 1978 the Congress scored 20 seats while APHLC got 16 and the HSPDP 14. In 1983 the Congress shot up to 25 seats while the APHLC and HSPDP got 15 seats each. In 1988 the Congress jumped to 22 seats. By then the APHLC had become HPU and got 19 seats while the HSPDP got 19 seats and the HSPDP got 6 while 9 Independents emerged as kingmakers. In 1993 the Congress got a further boost with 24 seats, the HPU-11 and HSPDP-8 and Independents -10.
Come 1998, the Congress got 25 seats and the HPU which had by them become UDP got 20 seats while HSPDP got 3 seats only. That was the first time that the BJP got 3 seats in Meghalaya and there were 5 Independents. In 2003 the Congress got 22 seats , NCP 14 seats, UDP 9, KHNAM entered the fray for the first time and got 2 seats while 5 Independents won. In 2008 the Congress again went up to 25, NCP -15, UDP-11, HSPDP-2 and Independents-5. In 2013 the Congress jumped up to 29, NCP got 2, UDP -8, HSPDP -4, Independents-13. In 2018 Congress got 21, NPP-20, UDP-6, HSPDP-2, NCP-1. In 2023 the Congress is reduced to 5 seats only while NPP jumped up to 26 and the UDP got 11 while HSPDP got only 2. Readers will forgive me for not knowing how to make graphs that could make the figures tell their own story.
Be that as it may this article is about the depths that the Congress Party had plumbed into over the years. Today it is just a shadow of its former self. Considering that the Congress is the only party apart from the BJP which has a national presence, its diminishing presence from a state like Nagaland where it scored zero this time should perhaps make the people of this country tell the Congress to pull up its socks and get real. Since the dynasty is the target of the BJP, the Congress which has in its fold many competent leaders should shed itself of the Nehru-Gandhi family and have a real soul searching after which they should elect a national leader who can equal Modi in stature. Unless this happens the country will regress into a situation where a one-party rule for many more decades is inevitable.
It is pointless to talk of a united opposition. The regional satraps are all hyper-ambitious and their political egos exceed their commitment to serve the people of this country. Rahul Gandhi has been given ample opportunity to lead the Party but there appears to be no substantial gains even from the Bharat Jodo Yatra which does not resonate in these hills. These sort of yatras might have succeeded in the past but now people are looking at a party that has the bandwidth to give an economic direction to the country and to take on the BJP, not with barbs and allegations that are thrown back at it but by giving the people of this country a new vision. That can only come from a credible face that is accepted across the country. I am afraid that Rahul Gandhi has lost his charisma, not because of anything but because he cannot rid himself of the stigma of being an inheritor of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty which in a sense is an anachronism for a thriving democracy. If the Nehru-Gandhis cared enough for the people of this country they would have stepped aside and allowed a free and fair election and not appointed an octogenarian who the family trusts, as President. India is a young country and needs young leaders like Sachin Pilot among others. It’s a different matter that quite a good number of the young brood have left the fold to join the BJP.
One is perplexed by this shift in allegiance by the younger members in the Congress. Some have said they felt suffocated by the dominance of the Party High Command which does not allow decision-making at the lower rungs. The reason why Pradyot Manikya Debbarma who was a Youth Congress leader left the Party is because the High Command has this habit of appointing state -in-charge who can be bribed to appoint the State Congress Chiefs. I recall when late Mr JD Rymbai was CM for a brief period June 2006- March 2007 and was called to Delhi because he was not granting NOCs to cement companies in Jaintia Hills for fear that there might be environmental consequences. He was told to meet Sonia Gandhi and he explained to her the reason why the state could not grant licenses to several cement companies. She listened to Mr Rymbai but it was as if she heard nothing. Looking him straight in the eye she said, “Mr Rymbai step down. Let Lapang take over.” I recall, a stupefied and agitated Mr Rymbai talking to me from Delhi on this. RG Lyngdoh, then the Home Minister, had accompanied him to Delhi. The benign and gentlemanly Mr Rymbai never lived down the humiliation of that encounter.
That top-down culture has still not changed. Even the appointment of Vincent Pala as the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Chief was arbitrary. Pala was not the choice of the entire Congress workers in Meghalaya. No wonder Mukul Sangma, Charles Pyngrope and 10 others walked out of the Party. The remaining 5 MLAs decided to offer support to the MDA-01 Government after which they all joined the NPP. It’s a different matter that there is an element of opportunism also in those who support the NPP. They knew the Congress would find it tough to make a comeback. I recall interviewing one of these Congress MLAs who later joined the NPP and contested from that Party. The person said to me in a private conversation that it would be difficult not to be with the BJP in the present circumstances. The rapid attrition in the Congress is due to the fact that people see no future in it. They don’t see any real attempt to rejuvenate the party or to change its style of functioning. While the Congress still has a dedicated vote bank that is now shrivelling since there is no one at the Block and Primary units to nurture the party members. Its also a fact that a political party that is out of power has no leverage. Money drives a lot of things. Party workers have been known to be with a political party because it can offer contract work and other privileges. Many business honchos in the State today are with the NPP because it is in power. The moment it is voted out these opportunists will move to the next party in power. That’s the nature of politics.
It is also ironic that the oldest party that led the country to Independence still does not trust its members to do the right thing and to contest and/or vote for the candidates of their choice. The perception is that the inner circle in the Congress like to give unto themselves the power to appoint people to different posts. Where is the democracy here?
If the Congress is to take on the BJP it has to use the tactics of the saffron party and activate its grassroots workers. This requires a commitment beyond what the Party can do for them. Those grass-roots workers must have the dedication of the RSS pracharaks and be there to help people in distress especially in rural areas. In these last five years we have hardly heard the Congress or what’s left of it attacking corruption, doing RTIs or reaching out to the last mile. In several villages that I have visited people no longer speak of the Congress. Is the High Command even aware of this? The Bharat Jodo Yatra never took off in this region and had no resonance here. The BJY is fine as a part of a social awakening movement but what about a political revolution that is much needed?
The younger members of the Congress Party in Meghalaya need to get their voices out there and point the way. Political parties need to realise that the demographic dividend can only work if younger people are trusted to take decisions on behalf of the party. Wisdom does not reside with age and dynasty will sound the death knell of the Congress.