By Benjamin Lyngdoh
Political philosophy is the set of fundamental beliefs, understanding, self-image, attitude and guidelines which determine and direct how a political party acts and behaves. Some parties have an arrogant political philosophy and that gets reflected in their behaviour. While some carry a participative and more empathetic political philosophy and accordingly the approach is more people-oriented by focusing on the real developmental issues in society. With so much of festival tourism happening in Meghalaya, it bodes well to ponder on the political philosophy of the state government?
Education
In a conversation with a friend who was working in England the talk flowed towards, ‘how is the political scenario different between there and here’. His answer was plain and simple – ‘in England, education has changed everything.’ The people there are so politically aware that no politician or party can play with its constituents. Every move that the politicians make is closely watched and analyzed. This analysis then forms the basis for electing or not electing a candidate in future elections. It is a matter of concern that such discourses/debates do not happen frequently in Meghalaya. They happen only once in a while and that too just before the elections.
The KHADC and JHADC elections are near so we can expect such debates to happen again from the first week of 2025. It can be said that the political awareness of the people of Meghalaya is limited to electioneering only. After elections, no one follows-up and checks if the tall promises made during campaigning are executed or not. For instance, on February 3, 2023 Chief Minister Conrad Sangma promised to create five lakh jobs over a period of five years if NPP comes back to power and that the jobs would be in the areas of entrepreneurship, tourism, agro-processing, and digital sectors. Then on June 6, 2023 the narrative changed to ‘the state government cannot provide jobs to all,’ while speaking at a World Environment Day function. If the people of Meghalaya were politically aware then they would have noted this political philosophy of misleading the populace and keep their fingers ready for February, 2028. But as usual, public memory is always short.
Priorities
Ever since the festival tourism started, social media is full of it. The focus on pressing issues such as unemployment, under-employment, drugs and substance abuse, etc has died down. What is the political philosophy of MDA 2.0 on priorities? If there is a list of priorities, what is the pecking order? It would be nice for the people to hear from the state government in detail. For a poor and developing state like Meghalaya the priority should have been to invest in areas encompassing the majority of the population such as agriculture, small business and daily-wage labourers. These are the areas that need tangible interventions. Tourism already has enough footfalls of more than 15 lakhs per annum and the focus should have been more on enabling better community-based tourism, rural tourism, cultural immersion through tourism, training and capacity building of the youth especially in the rural tourist spots, etc. Meghalaya is basically a poor household. Any poor household would look first into its basic needs such as food, water, clothing, shelter, education and health. Entertainment will only figure later when there is residual income to be spent. However, things are moving on reverse mode. The misplaced priorities are only creating a bigger distance between the poor and the state government. Many are disillusioned at the current turn of events. Yet, the state government does not seem to pay any attention to their plight. Rather, there is an air of arrogance on how it defends the overload of festivals. This only highlights a political philosophy that they are mighty and powerful and that ‘might is always right’.
Infrastructure
It is difficult to blindly validate festival tourism when the condition of basic infrastructure like roads, drains, waste disposal, drinking water, etc., are still to be appropriately addressed even in Shillong itself. We can observe the deplorable infrastructure conditions in the rural hamlets. The most pressing ones are the conditions of the schools and the health centres. Education and health are the pivots of human development. How can we expect the human resource to be effective if the infrastructural inputs are not provided to the ones who need them the most? On the other hand, MDA 2.0 has always shown a placating political philosophy when it comes to dealing with the pressure groups on important development projects such as the highways, railways, etc. This is a dangerous cocktail of ignoring the poor and needy while not having a spine to deal with and negotiate with the pressure groups. No wonder the poor of Meghalaya are feeling even more disenchanted with the actions and philosophy of the government with every passing day. It is like one entrepreneur quipped – ‘looks like we are trying to portray to the world a wonderful and rich sitting room when in fact our kitchen and bedrooms are all in a very bad shape’.
Exclusiveness
The basic role of any government in a poor state like Meghalaya is to facilitate development. Nurturing and providing a space for the populace to prosper and excel is its basic duty. This is inclusiveness and participatory political philosophy whereby the views of the people are factored when delving into any development strategy. To many people this is missing from MDA 2.0. Rather, exclusiveness is at play whereby the fruits of any intervention are enjoyed by a few. For instance, in the current affairs of festival tourism, the ones who reap the benefits are the well established business houses whereas the small shops in the corner with limited capacity get ignored. It is understood that it is a competitive market. But, development studies have unequivocally found that in any developing state it is the role of the government to provide a level playing field for all. The government would point to the massive crowds that attend the events. But, it is to be factored that they are an exclusive class of people who can afford it. The majority is left in the periphery and it is also to be noted that Meghalaya has one of the highest incidence of people living below the poverty line.
Statistics
When the dust settles, it would be proper for the state government to transparently show to the people the cost-benefit analysis of this series of festival tourism. The analysis should go beyond just highlighting how much money the government has given to a certain festival (like was done in the past). The statistics should include tourist inflows, outcomes for local entrepreneurs across transportation, accommodation, food and beverages, leisure, entertainment, etc. More importantly, the cost-benefit analysis should be done by a third party on the basis of valid and reliable data to be provided by the government. Only then and on the basis of factual data can an informed inference be made as to its potency/failure to drive inclusiveness and development. This then should form the basis for their continuity/non-continuity in future! This is an empathetic political philosophy.
In the end, it is better for all if Meghalaya refrains from acting as a honky-dory state for it is not. For after political philosophy comes political ethics.
(The writer teaches at NEHU; email – [email protected])