By Gregory F Shullai
Having voted our leaders for the next five years we are now damned or we are now blessed depending on what befalls the State – whether it will decay further or rise to its former glory once again. We have read much about the shame and the ruins that have been brought upon our people in the past ten years and also read equal amounts of the tumultuous gain in wealth of those who used their power for fortune, that we must have an exceptionally strong faith almost in the sense of credo quia absurdum (I believe because it’s absurd) in order to still hope for a growth economically and culturally – and above all in bringing an end to corruption…because that is what we are being told will be the new agenda.
With regard to corruption, how can those in whose heart lies the immortal care for the people, free themselves from all the inrushing frightening impressions they gathered from the swearing-in ceremony which evoked a more than normal appearance of people desperate to recover their election expenses from whatsoever Ministry they were allotted – an appearance which was clearly indifferent to the threat of a retired Supreme Court judge inquiring into corruption charges? Do not find fault with the way the elected members looked, because they are firm believers that they have reached their lofty promised land and from its distant aloofness they can see the wealth of the kingdom waiting in store. That was not how the leaders of old saw it, they had a kind disposition towards the people who elected them and they readily surrendered themselves to the service of the people, never thinking about their personal gain and were at peace with the thought that they were now required to open hearth and home to the people and offer their services in finding solutions to their problems. The leaders these days lack the kind of disposition we once knew in our leaders.
The new leaders are more like opponents of the old and it is in our interest to understand the difference between the two, because through a careful comparison of the two we will find the highest authority as to what constitutes a healthy community. We were, as I have often said, a disciplined community and that indeed more than the communities that surrounded us, and there was no way we could prevent ourselves from listening to the advice of our elders who comported themselves as heated votaries of discipline although they understood it only so far as it agreed with the hairsplitting dogmas of Christianity. Today it appears the Christian like morality has lessened since the youth have taken it upon themselves to understand this subject and set aside learning the same from their elders and so morality has become entangled in the artfully woven nets and ropes of impetuous youth and new experiences, and in this milieu, the elders are left wagging their head in denial of what the youth have to say but with not a word to utter.
The educated youth nowadays is educated above all, “religiously,” and they have taken their religious consciousness to the political field, where one can get “money for nothing” and in doing so dispensed with the sublime in which the preacher and the old succeeded. Where the average Khasi and the Jaintia cannot lift himself into the sublime he makes an impression less than the mediocre, and so he finds himself struggling with providing the right lessons at the right time and the youth go in search of answers from those who are just beginning to understand life’s complexities. In this, answers are derived from moroseness whereas it should have come from a situation of good fortune, mature manhood, experience, and out of the midst of fervent serenity of a brave and victorious mans’ estate. This is the new code of ethics we have progressed to and in it we must reset the teaching and learning experience.
If now to this confusion which calls itself progress, we add the hostile and brutal corruption that fortune seekers (elected leaders) display then in summation we find ourselves in such a confused state, such a turmoil, that the thinkers desire nothing more than to flee from it all and leave the responsibility of restoring some semblance of normalcy to the voters who in essence are the ones to be blamed for what has befallen us. The feeble person runs away from such challenges and the calculating ones go on right through them without perceiving them. The worst deal however falls upon the educated middle class who are left wondering what went wrong and how should we right this wrong. The educated ones (only 74% who can read and write), and an even more dismally low percentage who can understand what they read in the vision documents of the different political Parties knew immediately that what was in the interest of the people and the State was in the vision document of the BJP, the one that had among others the commitment of Rs.24,000/- per year to the single mothers, Rs.50,000/- for the girl child at birth, implementation of the 7th Pay Commission to salaried government employees, a development fund of Rs.10 lakhs/- per annum to the Dorbar Shnongs, a rise of Rs.2000/- to the current financial assistance provided to farmers, free education for the girl child from KG to PG, reservation of 33% for women in Government jobs, creation of 3.5 lakh self employed opportunities, establishment of a Medical College in Khasi Jaintia Hills, etc. These are very high commitments which many would brush aside as empty political promises, but taking into consideration the fact that in Assam where similar promises were made and where most have either been fulfilled or close to fulfillment even before time, have raised second thoughts.
As voters we have denied the BJP its chance to fulfil these specifically defined goals by denying our vote to their candidates. Now we must accept the responsibility of questioning why these commitments envisioned for the State and its people by the BJP cannot be fulfilled by the MDA02 government? If the BJP could commit to such goals, the elected government should commit likewise. On the day of the release of the BJPs manifesto, its National President, J.P. Nadda, clarified that the fund requirement and funding had already been determined and settled. If that is what the BJP could promise why can the government in power not do the same? The responsibility is ours to ensure that the promises mentioned above are fulfilled in the next five years. We have the right to demand that which was the best on offer during the elections because we were deliberately distracted by monetary enticements during Election Day, and the fake news and the false propaganda that some unscrupulous parties vehemently and repeatedly used against the BJP.
It is a desperate annoyance indeed to meddle with politics as an educated person. In the early days it did appear as if the connection of politics with that which we consider as tribal culture was possible and then suddenly some mongrel comes along and confuses our fantasy this side and that – but there is still one piece of advice to be given to the Khasis and the Jaintias. If they do not wish to let themselves be confused they must ask themselves the question, “Is this the Khasi- Jaintia culture we hoped for?”
(The writer is Spokesperson, BJP Meghalaya)