SHILLONG, May 6 — February this year witnessed the installation of a ‘Khichdi’ government cobbled together by the Congress which emerged the single largest party in the fractured verdict thrown up in the elections to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly. With no clear mandate given by the electorate in successive Assembly polls, coalition politics has inevitably become the political culture of the hill State which was born in 1972.
The present coalition government led by Chief Minister D D Lapang is an amalgam of five political parties viz., the Congress, UDP, MDP, HSPDP and KHNAM besides independents with each group taking their ‘pound of flesh’ in return for their support. The first few days since the swearing-in of the government found the Chief Minister busy in appeasing the allies with plum portfolios. For the sake of stability of his government and continued support of the allies, Lapang was compelled not only to include a record 38 of the 42 MLAs supporting him into the Council of Ministry but had also to give the status of Deputy Chief Minister to the leader of the UDP legislature group Dr Donkupar Roy.
What is the price of this stability ? A high-powered North East Study Group (NESG) constituted by the Union Home Ministry to go into the security scenario in the region and to suggest remedial action has made an interesting observation on the inherent political instability dogging the North Eastern States. “The price for continued loyalty goes upto Rs 11 lakh per month per MLA,” the Study Group said in its first set of recommendations made to the Home Ministry in June last year.
Going by this rate, Meghalaya Chief Minister would need a tidy Rs 4.62 crore every month to keep his flock of 42 happy. In one year, his requirement goes upto a whopping Rs 55.44 crore. This obviously creates the need for ‘slush’ money which comes from state funds, extortions through setting up of check-gates, etc., and commissions on supplies, recruitments, etc, the NESG stated.
Money is also required to pay off the insurgent groups or to allow them to raise ‘taxes’. These factors create a vested interest in insurgency. In Assam, for example, there are 57,000 Assam Police jawans, & 4 DGPs, 21 UGPs. Supplies cost Rs 500 crore annually while there are 11 checkgates which collect Rs 40-50 lakh each daily. Insurgency also helps in getting liberal funding from the Centre. The outcome is a parallel system of governance, both by the ultras and the ministers, MLAs, bureaucracy and police. So at the cutting edge, the district administration and block administrations have collapsed.