By Patricia Mukhim
The political culture of Meghalaya has always been about balancing of special interests, procrastination, equivocation, pandering to interest groups and tokenism perfected to an art form. Politics in Meghalaya has always meant delaying decisions that are in the larger interests of the people because politicians in government have always lacked that killer instinct to bite the bullet and do what has to be done. Take the issue of railways. Why has it taken so long for any government to take a decision that is going to benefit the larger public? Why have successive governments succumbed to pressure groups and other bleeding heart radicals who claim to know our best interests without ever consulting us? Often the problem about delayed decisions is that generations of people suffer the consequences. Each time a new Chief Minister assumes office he promises to take up development work on a war footing but that only leaves us more battle-scarred than ever. Those promises of development only remain in the realm of the imagination and five years just pass us by.
One of the arguments advanced by governments that have been in the driving seat in Meghalaya is that they lack a majority and are hamstrung by malcontents among their coalition partners. They claim that every good intention is shot down by the hair-splitters who without carrying out any research on the long term economic benefits of having railways coming in to the Khasi-Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, give their learned views as if they are business managers and gate-keepers of society. The oft repeated assertion that railways will cause influx, presupposes that those who travel by train are going to settle down in Meghalaya. Alternatively, they also assume that the people who would be employed at the railway stations would be the ubiquitous ‘outsider.’ Why can’t the local tribals work as porters and also in other railway related jobs?
The other issue of course is land acquisition which has always been the devil’s brew in Meghalaya. Land acquisition has never been a straightforward process and neither is it a transparent transaction. Right now a senior minister in the MDA Government is a land shark who is buying up land like there’s no tomorrow. This is the crux of the problem. If the Government needs land it has to meet with the land owners along the area required for acquisition after calling for a public meeting. The sordar/rangbah shnong should be present; so too is the presence of the communities residing along the stretch in case they need to be relocated. The Government should make the terms of acquisition clear and fix the compensation as per an agreed settlement and no escalation in land price should be allowed thereafter. The Government should actually seal such deals legally so that in case any hurdles come up at a later stage it can deal with the recalcitrant outlier effectively.
In terms of its current political strength the National Peoples’ Party (NPP) is in the majority with 32 MLAs. If it wishes to, it can push through many pro-people development agenda which have been hanging fire for decades. This is the time for the MDA Government to do what those before it could not achieve because of a plethora of reasons. It’s a now or never moment for the NPP. If this present government misses this opportunity it is likely to lose the 2028 elections. Actually, what I am stating here is not my personal opinion. I was having a conversation with a young lady who told me that the NPP has everything going for it right now. It has to take those long-pending decisions like the railway project and also ensure that Meghalaya has a fully functioning airport. Enough of the delays and we have also had enough of every project being mired in controversy.
To be fair to the MDA Government, at least two projects that were virtually on hold – one of them for decades – have been completed. These are the two 5-star hotels – the Vivanta and Courtyard by Marriot. Its because Meghalaya now has these 5-star luxury hotels that big names like Bryan Adams and other rock stars are agreeing to come here and perform. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to hold the G-20 meet and several other embassy and consulate level meetings such as were held in recent times. These two 5-star hotels and other less-starred ones too have been able to provide jobs to several young, dynamic and hardworking men and women.
And while there are all kinds of allegations about favouritism and nepotism in the manner in which event managers are selected for different events and a host of other opportunities that are coming up as well, the reality is that several young people are doing something rather than just cooling their heels. It is a sad reality that those who don’t get into the charmed circle of being gainfully employed will have their share of heartburns but who says that life has always dealt a fair deal. The fact of the matter is that there is some kind of buzz and some have gained from the different verticals that have been created from the Meghalayan Age Ltd, PRIME and several others. No government anywhere will be able to create jobs for everyone. The private sector has to come in and that is the reason why the Investment Meghalaya Authority (IMA) has been created to facilitate investments by private sector investors. What the MDA Government could do better is to create a climate of transparency and engage with civil society to allay their fears about land alienation.
The present government can point to the manner in which the cement companies in Jaintia Hills are functioning with tribal directors who are also perhaps the landowners on which the companies are set up and are the majority shareholders in the company. We are not sure if that is the case with the cement companies or whether the tribal directors are mere idle partners lending their names to facilitate the business. If at all land is to be leased the terms should be clear so that it also inspires a climate of confidence among the investors.
The MDA government is now in a position to take hard decisions in the larger interests of the state. Perhaps it’s time to have a referendum on whether people of Meghalaya want the railways or not. We the voters should be able to vote on such issues so that a few people who take decisions on our behalf do not railroad their way and keep the state in a perpetual state of dystopia. Meghalaya has no business being one of the poorer states in the country or the state with the largest number of malnourished children or the state with a high school drop-out rate and where the health system is struggling to fix itself, courtesy years of having allowed it to malfunction. Again to be fair to the MDA Government it is struggling to repair the health system but fixing a broken system takes much more effort than managing a system that has been efficiently run from the word ‘go.’
Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma recently attended investors’ meets at New Delhi and Mumbai. He understands business and finance having studied those. He also needs to understand that taking people along on this new trajectory is an imperative not an option. The MDA Government has the opportunity to deliver. Let’s hope it does!