Monday Musing
[ Amar Sangno ]
In a parliamentary form of government, elections are considered festivals of democracy. It’s about battles of ideologies, ideas, and more so, vision. In these battles, oratory skills, visionary outlook, humility, honesty, and mass appeal are requisite ingredients for one to be chosen as a representative.
Alas, the festival of election in our state is typically different from those in the rest of the nation. In Arunachal, leaders are not chosen based on their oratory skills and visionary ideas; rather, they are chosen based on their ‘spendthrift quality’, which is to say, how much they can spend for each voter.
We don’t give a damn whether an aspirant has siphoned off public money and looted the government’s coffer secretly to contest elections. All we care about is money. We love money in elections.
And those who don’t sell their adult franchise – well, they vote on the basis of community, clan, and blood relationships, rather than on any party’s ideology and beliefs.
Hold on! I am talking about the member of legislative assembly (MLA) elections; else union Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju would have never won any election.
Thus, ours is typically a ‘festival of gambling and survival’, rather than a festival of democracy. When survival is a priority, the leaders are bound to shift their loyalties and change their stances.
Of late, in Arunachal, the great gamble is on for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tickets. Everybody wants to be a loyal BJP soldier ahead of the Lok Sabha and the assembly elections. In some constituencies, the sitting MLAs and aspiring candidates share the same stage, trying hard to prove who the true soldier of the party is.
I quote my senior colleague Bengia Ajum: “Increasingly, it looks like 2024 will be BJP vs BJP in most of the constituencies. Sadly, not many takers for opposition party tickets, which doesn’t augur well for democracy.”
Rajiv Gandhi University Professor Nani Bath added, “Commonly, it is seen as an extension of the BJP’s policy of ‘Congress-mukt’ Bharat. For me, it is nothing but the reflection of the infighting within the party (BJP). ‘Pema-BJP,’ ‘Chowna-BJP’, ‘Kiren-BJP’, and, of course, ‘old BJP’ versus ‘new BJP’. If Khandu does not consolidate his position better than ever before, he would be cut down to size post-elections.”
Though it would be too early to write off the grand old party, Congress, in Arunachal, when their legislators are jumping onto the bandwagon and singing ‘Jai Shree Ram’ with BJP members, it is fair to conclude that the Congress is nowhere in the contest in the 2024 elections in Arunachal.
Reluctance and insecurity among the aspirants to contest elections on the opposition party’s tickets is visibly written all over the wall; it is disregard of deliberative democracy and not a good sign for democracy, as a strong opposition makes a healthy and vibrant democracy.
It is obvious that a BJP ticket would be the doorway to the 8th legislative assembly. In most of the constituencies, the fates of many aspirants are hanging by a thin thread, and BJP tickets would determine their future. As they wait for the party ticket to be finalised, they are sitting on needles and pins.
