 |
| ‘Elections are an end in themselves and after the results are out, it is usually a free-for-all’. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Politically, Meghalaya can be named the most unstable state of the Northeast, nay, in the whole country. Here, governments change like the seasons.
Elections are an end in themselves and after the results are out, it is usually a free-for-all. Parties of all shades and persuasions come together to build what they call a coalition. But because of the difficulty in electing a leader since everyone is a self-styled boss of his party, what should actually be a coalition of the willing turns out into a rag-tag band of the disparate.
In February 2008, when Meghalaya went to the polls, the voters clamoured for change. They were disgusted with the Congress’s malgovernance and corruption, which towards the fag end of the tenure had resembled the story Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Power deals were signed at random with private companies. Ultimately, deals were struck for generating 2000MW power.
The down payment that companies paid to ink the deal was something to the tune of Rs 5 lakh per MW. That works out to a tidy sum of Rs 100 crore. But power was not the only resource on sale. Meghalaya is known for its huge limestone deposits. There used to be a beeline of cement companies outside the chief minister’s office ready to strike deals. The going rate for each cement licence was Rs 2 crore. At that time, chief minister D.D. Lapang had allegedly appointed a pointsman to do all the deals. That was the last leg of the Congress regime and every Congressman knew that even if his reputation did not suck, he would have to carry the burden of his colleagues’ acts of omission and commission.
Surprisingly, the Congress did pretty well with a tally of 25 seats. This lends credence to what James Reston wrote in The New York Times that an election is a bet on the future, not a popularity test of the past. However, there were other factors that helped the cause, of which money is the crux. In the coal belts of Meghalaya, money flowed like wine. Each candidate spent a minimum of rupees 5 crore. Most of the Congress candidates were coal barons, so money was not an issue. Naturally the Congress got the maximum seats from Khasi and Jaintia Hills. In the Garo Hills, the Congress fared poorly. P.A. Sangma’s NCP got 13 out of 24 seats from Garo Hills and two from the Khasi and Jaintia Hills. The NCP got one more seat in a byelection. Several Congress sitting MLAs and stalwarts from Garo Hills lost. For Sangma, the 2008 elections was an acid test for the NCP and his own acceptability among the Garos.
But even with 25 seats in a House of 60 and Himanta Biswa Sarma’s generous help and abetment, the Congress failed to attract allies to form a coalition government. It was Sangma who stitched together a coalition of fringe parties and Independents to form the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) — a government headed by the NCP. However, like an elderly statesman, Sangma made way for the UDP leader Donkupar Roy to be the chief minister. His son Conrad K. Sangma became the deputy chief minister with plum portfolios. Sangma took it upon himself to recast the State Planning Board and give it more teeth instead of making it a sanatorium for failed politicians. Sangma got some of the best brains in the country, comprising scientists and experts in various fields, to join the planning board. For this exercise, few can fault Sangma.
For one year the MPA sailed through rough waters. Its constituents had grave ideological differences, some of which spilled over into the public domain. Franklin D. Roosevelt had once said the science of politics might properly be said to be in large part the science of the adjustment of conflicting group interests. One challenge the MPA faced was in the appointment of political hangers-on to various posts of patronage.
The government encountered its first air pocket when one of its MLAs challenged the political appointments, which had reached absurd numbers. There were almost 100 political appointees at all levels and the expenditure incurred in paying their honorarium and allowances were colossal. But there were other storms awaiting the MPA.
An Independent MLA and minister while visiting his constituency roughed up all those who he thought did not vote for him. A series of police complaints were registered against him. But he only repeated the acts. The Congress bayed for his head and said he should be sacked. The MPA sat and did nothing. Then the Deputy Speaker got physical with the education minister at a wedding reception. All these marred the reputation of the MPA. But perhaps these were also teething problems that marriages of convenience among people of incompatible traits tend to bring out.
What triggered the worst crisis for the MPA was the demise of E.K. Mawlong, the former chief minister and MLA from Umroi constituency. Mawlong’s son, George Lyngdoh, failed to retain the seat. It went, instead, to the Congress.
This was a blow that the MPA could not recover from. Having won the Umroi seat, the Congress never rested. It triggered some defections from the MPA and asked the governor to put the government through a confidence vote.
Meanwhile, Speaker B.M. Lanong suspended the voting rights of the four MLAs who had resigned overnight and switched loyalties to the Congress. The MPA sailed through the trust vote by a whisker, only after the Speaker gave his casting vote.
But Governor R.S. Mooshahary did not consider that a good enough win. He predicted a period of political instability and recommended President’s rule. The UPA ratified his proposal without much ado.
Now, all of a sudden the Congress and NCP are teaming up to form a government in Meghalaya and President’s rule has been revoked. This new bonhomie is not a creation of the state units but a strategic alliance in the larger national interest. The Congress is not wasting any opportunity to build alliances. The NCP’s Sharad Pawar is all too keen to pick up the threads of friendship from where he left off some time ago.
For Meghalaya, this will be the second government in two years. Between 2003-2008 Meghalaya had six governments. With this political instability as its second name can Meghalaya ever develop? Little wonder the state is in the doldrums on all fronts, particularly in health and infrastructure development. A bypass between Umroi and Sohryngkham, which was conceived 25 years ago, is still hanging fire. The Umroi airport remains largely non-viable. We have no railhead and lack proper road connectivity between Garo Hills and Khasi and Jaintia Hills. There are many more on the list of non-achievements if one were to make a compendium of those. Meghalaya is truly a failed state in all sense of the term. And we must thank our political masters for this grand deception.
(The writer can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com) |