By Patricia Mukhim
The altercation between the Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) and the management of the North East India Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) has far reaching consequences. In the first place if NEIGRIHMS has in any way violated the employment policy the job of a pressure group is not to enter the premises of an institution and threaten people in charge. This is at best a strategy to confront a situation by using intimidation as a tool and tactic. It is a well-honed skill and a tool that has perhaps in the past yielded results because
Pressure groups are an essential part of democracy but they are not meant to act as political springboards which pressure groups in Meghalaya are known for. Pressure groups also do not engage in electoral campaigns and are often established to address immediate concerns, affecting the citizenry. The only role of pressure groups is on swaying governmental decisions in their favour. When that happens they gain naturally gain political capital and public adulation. The natural trajectory for most pressure group leaders is to contest elections because they feel they have the public with them. Unfortunately, that transition from social service to politics often boomerangs and the once known pressure group leader is defeated in the elections.
The problem with Meghalaya since its inception is that the rule of law has always been compromised, more so when those who break the law are indigenous tribals and those affected by the almost non-existent law-keeping are the “others” the “outsiders.” Every central institution that has the indigenous tribals working in them will always have subversive elements the ‘insiders’ who when they see that they cannot have their way because of the discipline and work culture enforced by the institution, begin to feed the pressure groups with information that is neither objective nor true but with the intent of pushing their own agenda across. Surgeons have even been coerced to perform surgery on someone first, simply because he/she is an indigenous person and a resident of Meghalaya. Can any institution practise this level of partisanship? Yet all those working in NEIGRIHMS are silent. The Khasi/Jaintia/Garo doctors/nurses and administrative staff will not speak up for fear of offending the pressure groups who they can use to their advantage when they choose to. The so-called “outsiders” will not speak up for fear of being assaulted inside or outside the campus.
Here one must also question the role of the security officer of NEIGRIHMS. What was he doing that a group using intimidation as a tool were able to enter the institution and even try and shut down the director’s office? Why should any director tolerate such an affront? These acts of omission and commission are obviously communicated to the Union Health Ministry which is the sole authority over NEIGRIHMS and I am sure the Ministry will not take too kindly to such disruptions. In that respect it is good that the State Government has stood up to defend NEIGRIHMS after initially adopting a hands-off attitude. NEIGRIHMS may be a central institution but its location in Meghalaya makes it the onus of the state government to ensure that law and order not just in this institution but all other central and state institutions is not breached.
If there are genuine cases where the reservation policy has been flouted the pressure groups ought to take legal recourse after producing enough evidence that such rules have been violated. But to take matters in their own hands and to force their way into an institution and redress an apparent wrong through coercion merely because the person running the institution is not a tribal but an “outsider” and therefore an easy target, is not acceptable. Meghalaya is fortunate to have NEIGRIHMS which attracts patients from across the seven states but more so from the host state. For people of Meghalaya the better equipped NEIGRIHMS becomes the better it is for those that cannot afford to go for treatment outside the state. Healthcare is expensive and the prospect of having to take a patient to a hospital outside Meghalaya not only involves more expenses but also the burden of the caretaker/s having to stay in a hotel. It should actually be the brief of pressure groups to urge NEIGRIHMS to upscale itself in the various departments and to start up super-specialties that can equal the private hospitals elsewhere. But have we ever heard of pressure groups engaging with the Union Health Ministry to expand the facilities in NEIGRIHMS. No, we haven’t because pressure groups are under the assumption that their role is to disrupt, not to build.
This is the reason why pressure groups can endanger democracy by undermining the larger public interests and taking up causes that benefit a few vested interests by employing intimidating methods to achieve their objectives. For too long Meghalaya has been held to ransom by one or other pressure group.
Now that the funds allocated for railways to the Khasi Hills is being returned just because pressure groups have ganged up to demand the Inner Line Permit before bringing in the railway lines, sometime in the future when the younger generation of Khasis grow up they will ask why the railway project has been short-circuited without a public debate. By then much harm would have been done to Meghalaya in terms of transportation of essentials.
If there was a railway line to Guwahati the present jam at Khanapara due to some minor repair work that is taking forever would not cause so much disruption and loss to those that missed their flights. Every negative action has a price that often has to be paid by the future generation. A society without a vision; a society that outsources its problems to pressure groups; a society that is lazy about thinking long term and grasps at immediate solutions is a society headed for disaster.
Sadly, while quite a number of our young people are breaking barriers and moving out to work outside the state, some who wish to cling on to their parents’ apron strings are the ones that want easy jobs without investing hard labour to make the institution they work in achieve its goals. Ellerine Diengdoh has very aptly encapsulated the problems of a lethargic, inefficient, bureaucracy that serves the last mile, in her recent article. Their lack of accountability is legendary and yet when any action is to be taken against such non-performing government “servants” they would have a long list of grievances.
Government has now come a long way and the system ought to work more like a corporate entity – perform or perish. And that includes all institutions – including the likes of NEIGRIHMS. Those who don’t match up to the challenges of the job description should be dumped in favour of better performing employees. Why should any government or institution continue to employ or pay second or third rate employees when they can get the best from any part of the country? Reservation cannot be an excuse to employ non-performers. All things being equal among the reserved categories the best performer deserves the job but not by lowering standards.
When we go to a hospital we look for the best doctors and want services from the best nursing staff. We don’t ask for the community of the person behind the uniform. If that is what we want then we cannot allow pressure groups to dictate the terms of employment. Period!