By Patricia Mukhim
The law is equal for all says the Constitution of India but the rule of law is applied differently for different people. The Constitution does not mention that certain categories of people by virtue of their being power holders should be privileged with sirens when they drive around a heavily congested city. Why is the Constitution given leave of absence when it comes to application of the Right to Equality? Elected members of the legislature and administrators who are the supporting structures of what is called “the government” are referred to as “public servants.” But do they behave like servants? No, they are a privileged class while the rest of us are ordinary citizens with no rights whatsoever; not even the right to drive peacefully on a public road without being pushed to the side when the “worthies” who always seem to be in a hurry drive past. The worst behaviour is that of the cops accompanying the VIPs who demonstrate their power and might at hapless citizens by actually shooing them to the drains so their lords and masters can pass by. These daily shenanigans are what actually irk the public and what leads to lawlessness. The police need to climb down their high horses and realise they are not living in the British Raj. They are citizens of a sovereign country where the public cannot be bullied around as the white men did to the brown people they ruled over. Alas! The uniform seems to give so much impunity to the men in uniform. But when it comes to the crunch and they need to arrest criminals these men in uniform flounder all the time. Meghalaya’s Police’s conviction rate is abysmal. Not one murderer since 1979 who has been involved in hate crimes has been convicted. This is a matter of great shame for the police.
But why should we be surprised? Take a trip to Jaintia Hills and from Mookyndur onwards we see policemen extending their hands towards every truck driver passing by and taking the money without issuing receipts and without batting an eyelid. It’s almost as if this is part of policing. The question is – where does all this money go? Does it go to the top of the pyramid? If it does, then is it not double standards to expect cops to honestly discharge their duties?
Perhaps the MDA Government in its smug complacency, where ministers go from meeting to meeting, if not in Shillong then in Delhi or abroad, needs to be informed that discontent is deeply rooted in society today. The malcontents too want to have their share of pleasures and find no recreational space to relax with friends and speak their hearts out. The old “patta kyiad” or local pubs that used to serve locally brewed liquor are all dismantled by a ‘holier than thou’ society that does not approve of their menfolk drinking. A society steeped in hypocrisy that believes that if these pubs are dismantled then drinking would stop. Well, drinking hasn’t stopped. Drinking happens in dark spaces or in cars. When the drinking and feasting is done the bottles are discarded for people in those localities to pick and dispose of. When such guys go home they are sozzled and don’t really care about the foul-mouthed shouting and upbraiding they get from their parents/wives etc. They are too sloshed to care and this drama is repeated every day, day after day until they begin to complain of feeling unwell and the diagnosis is amongst other things – a damaged liver.
What is it that pushes people to drink in order to get drunk? Well, that’s for psychologists to answer especially those in rehabilitation and drug and alcohol de-addiction centres. But if one spends enough time to listen to these malcontents there is always a story of an unaddressed need which could be a family that’s constantly berating the person; a family that shows no empathy; a family where no one cares to listen. It is almost an accepted fact that alcoholics and drug addicts lie through their teeth just so they can get their next fix. But is there anyone with enough patience to hear them out? I guess there are too few people today with a listening ear. Poverty is staring many in the face and the opportunities to get out of that poverty are too few. One needs to be literate and to have passed Class 10 or 12 to be considered even for a driver’s job. With the number of high school drop-outs rising every year is there a system in place to skill such people for a meaningful livelihood? All our systems are designed to serve those that are, at the very least, Class 12 passed.
A large majority of our youth are therefore a disillusioned lot who feel cheated by the system and hence have no stakes in it. That is why they are disruptive and hate the idea of law and order. I would not like to label them as law breakers because they don’t even fall in the category of those that know the law. You have to be educated to know you are breaking the law and committing a crime. When these young despondent youth see those in positions of authority break the law with impunity and get away with corruption, they argue that what’s good for the powerful should be good for the powerless too.
When the National Green Tribunal (NGT) came up with the ban on coal mining in April 2014, it did so because it found several miners trapped inside mines without their deaths being reported. The mine owners could not be bothered to search for the dead bodies of their workers in case of a mine flooding. To say that this is a gross violation of human rights is an understatement. The rat hole mines are killer mines and the NGT had every right to ban this model of coal extraction. But that the successive governments of Meghalaya from 2014 till date allowed illegal coal mining to take place and for that coal to be transported illegally is not a state secret. It is known to all but the malcontents judge this even more severely because they are constantly reminded that they are delinquents. Their contention is if those in government can commit crimes in broad daylight why do their acts become criminal? After all, the law should be equal for all! These double standards exhibited by society and its many institutions including churches and law enforcers is what is galling to these youth that have fallen between the cracks.
The recent order by the Deputy Commissioner East Khasi Hills that all shops should close by 10 pm couldn’t have been more aggravating for the street food vendors, many of them supporting a family and earning from what many tend to label as the rejects of society who come to satiate their hunger because street food is so much more affordable than the food in restaurants. Sometimes even those who have emerged from the expensive bars where they have their expensive drinks find street food tastier than the usual restaurant fare. Street food vending is a livelihood for many women that are single parents. One woman was seen talking to the electronic media with a little child on her back. And they are unlikely to give up their right to a livelihood without a fight.
One is appalled that the district administration could come up with rules that prohibit an honest livelihood by imposing a timing on businesses – some very small, others small and still others of a medium scale. This is why it is so important to be grounded. Sitting in an office and listening to juniors reporting a situation and then acting on it is not good administration. In a society there will be brawls and fights and malcontents are constantly testing the waters. If they find the law alert and uncompromising they may not take too many liberties as they do now.
For many in Meghalaya today, poverty is a daily experience. It’s pointless telling people what they need to eat so that they can overcome malnutrition when they can hardly afford rice and dal; one or two tiny pieces of meat and hardly any vegetables. Let’s not even talk of fruits which are unaffordable even by the middle class. The prices of vegetables and essentials have spiraled sky high with no one keeping a tab on why this is happening. Surely the markets cannot always decide the prices. Some regulatory mechanism is needed else resentments against the system are bound to pile up.
A system that is seen to be tilting towards the affluent will have many working against it. When the balance tilts, the rule of law will be challenged beyond its capacity to deal with the growing delinquencies. The population growth in Meghalaya amongst the poorer section continues to scale the graph. Teenage girls are becoming mothers before they know what parenting is all about. In fact women are becoming reproductive machines in this state, but is anyone serious about addressing this insidious problem? No. In fact all the institutions have failed women in this state. Why then are we surprised at the growing population of malcontents in Meghalaya?
Perhaps we have closed our minds to the problems afflicting society and find them boring. These problems that we brush under the carpet will haunt us. But by then most of our politicians would have migrated to foreign countries to settle there. Why should they care?