The Prism of Electoral Politics in Meghalaya As It Is

As Meghalaya is geared up for the Assembly elections (27 February 2018), political parties and veteran political leaders are full packed with campaigning mood for the ensuing elections, it would be interesting to recap at the political battle of this tiny state in the Northeastern part of India.

Meghalaya has had 11 people as the Head the Government, six of whom belonged to the Congress party, including the first CM Capt. Williamson A Sangma. Except in the case of Capt. Williamson Sangma (1972-1977), Salseng C Marak (February 19, 1993, to March 9, 1998) and Mukul Sangma (2013-2018) none could complete a full term. Interestingly Meghalaya had President’s Rule for two times; the first was on October 11, 1991, to February 5, 1992, the second was on March 18, 2009, to May 12, 2009. Meghalaya has had three to six governments in one full term which in total it has somewhere 24 governments since 1972. The state before going to the 10th Legislative Assembly Elections has just celebrated its 46 years of Statehood with much bragging about its achievement and progress over the years. But believe it or not, the truth is that’s far from reality; be it education, health, infrastructure, employment and all-round development is still lacking behind. Because of the history of instability in the past decades, it is understood about the foundation behind the account of what and where the State stands today. Interestingly there has been no Khasi-Jaintia Chief Minister who could complete the full term of five years, although the Khasi-Jaintia Hills together house the largest number of population and have 36 seats sharing as compared to the Garo Hills which is only 24 seats.

Issues vis-à-vis Development

The contentious issues such as border, influx, indigenous land rights and many others have always been a hot elections agenda over the years. Excitingly this time around it is also seen as something else; the right to vote out the Congress and preventing the Saffron party to win is another issue among the regional parties. The Meghalaya Legislative Assembly tenure 2013-2018 is an interesting tenure for Meghalaya because after a long gap the state has had a full five year term and not to mention that for the first time in the history of Meghalaya that regional parties were not part of the government and did not require regional parties to form the government. Despite the internal bickering within the Congress party under Mukul Sangma, the government lasted for full-term though lately, some MLAs and veteran leaders left the party. Though Meghalaya is a tribal dominated state, nevertheless the present August house is headed by a non-tribal who for the first time Meghalaya had a Non-Tribal Speaker in the Assembly.

Meanwhile, the BJP leaders are downplaying the Hindutva agenda so that the people will vote for them in the Meghalaya Assembly election. But the fact remains that BJP leaders are hell-bent on propagating the politics of homogeneous society in India. I sensed that the majoritarian sentiments will only hamper the minority communities if we look at it from a holistic point of view.

Every time when a Khasi-Jaintia leader became the Chief Minister, a collapse of the government is highly expected which has happened since 1978. Following which the legislators did not have time for making policies such as education, health, mining, tourism, sports and youth policy, and important legislation like Lokayukta, anti-influx, fast-track courts and overall development of the state. This is quite unfortunate because every election these frontrunners will never forget to use the name of the public for the sake of their petty political agenda. Amusingly as stated earlier the favourite issue of regional parties every election is the issue of influx, border issue, land and natural resources etc. but gloomily these usually become inapt after elections. A proper mechanism should be dealt with in order that such crucial issues are addressed simultaneously.

Meghalaya prior to its full statehood, it got a semi-autonomous status in 1970. It was carved out of Assam on 21 January 1972, after a long period of non-violent struggle to achieve its own statehood under the leadership of APHLC, HSPDP and others with late Hoping Stone Lyngdoh, Williamson Sangma, JJM Nichols Roy, SD Khongwir and others who lead the movement. The fight for statehood was after the Assam government plans to make Assamese as the state official language, among other issues. Interestingly most of the political parties in their elections agenda even the BJP campaigns to make Garo and Khasi language as recognised language in the eight schedule of the constitution.

Whereas Meghalaya’s population is merely 3 Million out of which 1.8 Million are eligible to vote. The number is minimal as compared to big states like Assam or West Bengal but the desperate attempt by BJP and Congress to ensure victory is reflected clearly by the coming of big leaders like PM Modi, Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, Gaurav Gogoi, Smriti Irani apart from other leaders.

In every election, political ideology in itself does not seem to completely influence the voters in Meghalaya, instead, the role of a family or a personality is very much reflected in every election. In this way, we could see many independent candidates have won the elections by addressing the core issues that affect the people in the state. More so it won’t be a surprise if BJP wins the elections in some constituencies because they have got the former MLAs and some veteran leaders joined its fold. The fact of the matter is ideology and political activism has hardly been internalized in the minds of the voters.

The pre-poll alliance between UDP-HSPDP-GNC (regional parties) is a ‘marriage of convenience’ as remarked by many political parties and also seems pointless exercise because it has been done hurriedly done without proper discussion with the respective party units and blocks. It is most likely that a fractured mandate going to happen again in 2018 elections like it did in 2008 and before. It is also imperative to also see the rising of NPP which will be the turn of electoral politics in Meghalaya if NPP could form the government. Although the state's regional parties have time and again raised the issue of influx, border, land and other issues related to the indigenous community of Meghalaya, which is seen as a boost in the past one year, we never know the voters might not be voting for regional parties for some reasons or the other. Moreover, the changing scenario of politics in Meghalaya goes hand in hand with the changing of government at the centre. Other than Congress no other National Parties have been able to form the government in the state for the past 46 years. So BJP dream of forming the government is still aloof but with NPP stronghold in the state at present, they may be in the coalition government. As stated earlier in Meghalaya the ideological leanings does not matter much to the voter which is why it won't be a surprise if the BJP comes to power. Since 1978, Meghalaya has been experiencing a hung assembly because no party could secure majority which it had to compromise through a coalition government. This election also is likely to face a hung assembly as the fight is getting tougher for the well-established parties in Meghalaya like UDP, HSPDP and Congress. The lack of leadership and commitment towards a better Meghalaya is one factor that led to unstable governments over the years.

In a nutshell, the political system in Meghalaya needs a grassroots approach in order that the political scenario will see the light of the day. The fulfilment of basic problems related to the common people should be addressed and make it materialized. But as usual, the leaders who are contesting the elections are campaigning around with unrealistic agenda and without a proper vision where the government does not seem to have space in their dictionary. Maybe because the dynastic politics and politico-business class nexus are one of the reasons. More often than not there are rabble-rousers who are not only patronizing the issues but hoodwink the crucial issues of the state for his/her political gains. Such strategy has been the tactics of the not so serious leaders that has distorted the political system for so long. Meghalaya is really in need of a legislator who genuinely could bring change and make strong policies that would benefit the state. In India, any Tom, Dick and Harry can become a politician but it takes an illustrious and dedicated individual to become a Statesman or a Legislator. Can Meghalaya produce such leader? Before I conclude I would like to point out the fact that the Meghalaya population is mostly practising a matrilineal system but wretchedly there were neither woman Chief Minister who had governed the state nor many women who were elected to the Legislative Assembly. Even the present elections also we will hardly have three or four women legislators to be elected. Will Meghalaya vote for a genuine change of a political system that would bring the all-around development or remain stable as it is today? I leave this question to the electorates to decide on the 27, February 2018 and hope that a prolific outcome on the 3rd March 2018 will bring some unpretentious and uncompromised change for the next five years.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick.