Analysis

Middlesome Muddles . . .

In India the most contradictory things take place. But contradiction should have its inner and outer limits. Our tiny state of Meghalaya will go to the polls in February/ March 2013. So there is a hustle for power already with scams coming to the fore, like never before (rhyme not intended). The state has the dubious distinction of having forty governments in power, in the forty years of its chequered existence. So much for political unity!

Now, before the hustings three things are beleaguring the state. The first is extremism in the Garo Hills. The second is the announcement of a proscribed group in this area, that its leader will contest the elections, with a Congress ticket, and that too after his arrest! The third is the unearthing of tampering with results of a selection of school teachers, at the LP level, by the then Minister of Education and the person's cohorts, most of them Ministers and bureaucrats. And mind you this is a CBI finding.

While, the first has been continuing for a long time, almost five to six years, the arrest and grandiose declaration of the leader of the militant outfit, that he will contest elections on a ruling party ticket, smacks almost of arrogance; and disregard not only of the government but his own organization. What is befuddling and intriguing to say the least, is that the government has chosen to maintain a stoic but peculiar silence.
 
What is worrying is that this silence more than hinges of  acceptance and tacit approval. Why the Chief Minister has chosen to maintain this enigmatic, and if I may say so, a 'rude' stance is anybody's guess. This is the play and perambulation of power politics. In the meantime a former proscribed unit in Garo Hills, another faction has belligerently accused the government in being in bonhomie with this militant outfit. This is not only a sorry state of affairs, but a point more than to bother about. Is this an example of politician militant nexus which the media often talks about?

The next instance, of tampering with recruitment results is even worse, so much so that public signature campaigns are on because of this. What is the use of State Eligibility Test (SET) if things are coming to such evil ends? Understandably the candidates are protesting but what is ironical that the powers to be are denying a CBI report. How can this happen when the report clearly indicts the mininster citing the name of an officer in the Education Department as a kind of prime witness who was 'ordered' to carry out this misconduct, and who does not deny it but reiterates it? This is indeed a rather complicated state of affairs, but lamentably it is very sad and tragic. And one minister has the temerity to say that it is understanable that people in position can have their own favourites! What reflection is this on the shams of democracy, or for that matter hypocriscy?

Now, that the Aaam Aaadmi Political Party has been constituted if they want serious power they better look into the minutiae of such things in a tiny state as Meghalaya, which reflects the microcosm of the macrocosmic reality in the country.
 

30-Nov-2012

More by :  Ananya S Guha

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