Sangma'S New Parking Lot
Few know how to work the system, particularly if you belong to the minorities or hail from the periphery. How many leaders from the north-east have made it in the cut and thrust of Delhi politics in the past 50 years?
Not more than 10, perhaps: D K Barooah, Gopinath Bordoloi, Hiteswar Saikia, R K Jaichandra Singh, P K Thungon, Tarun Gogoi. Add a couple of names, that's about all. Some more names from the region may well be known in other parts of the country, but no leader from the region is as well known across the country as Purno Agitok Sangma. The reason is that none of his fellow north-easterners knew or know how to work the political establishment in Delhi as well as he does. Also, none of them were wise enough to realise the potential of television for career advancement.
Thanks to his stint as the Lok Sabha speaker and the live coverage of House proceedings, Sangma can easily rate as India's first political superstar. It may be too early to say if television has changed the nature of politics, or if it has led to more democratisation, but it has surely changed the fortunes of some `leaders' who regularly appear on our screens with increasing finesse and tele-savvy. Indeed, there are already signs of cosmetics replacing ideology as the field of expertise over which a politician must have competent control. But in Sangma's case, television has only proved a catalyst to an otherwise right mixture of credentials, correctness and a winning smile. Until he became the Speaker, he was in the same league as the Rajesh Pilots, Margaret Alvas and Ghulam Nabi Azads, but no longer. Sometime ago he was even considered a consensus candidate for prime ministership, and now has made bold to take on the heavyweight Sharad Pawar on the issue of membership of the Constitution Review Commission.
Regulars at Delhi's India International Centre who saw Sangma often lunching with BJP leaders before they won power did not have much doubt about Sangma's political correctness and foresight. And since the adventure with Pawar out of the Congress did not promise much, it was only a matter of time before Sangma was `put to good use' by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The BJP considered him an ally in the Lok Sabha while the United Front was in power, and took the rare step of inviting him to one of their inner meetings at Jhinjhauli recently. In fact, had it not been Pawar's foresightedness and refusal to formally join hands with the BJP, Sangma would have been a senior cabinet minister today. But has Sangma batted well by burning bridges with Sonia Gandhi and aligning with the saffroners? His positioning right now does give him leeway to return to the left-centrist fold should the party be over for the BJP-led alliance. Until then, the commission can prove as good a parking lot as any. After all, nothing is more humiliating for a politician than having no `work' or influence in the politics of the day.
The fate of Sangma's gamble to break with the Congress remains to be seen, but events in the last two years have certainly dented the earlier appeal that cut across political lines. The Congress was against his inclusion in the commission while the Left parties now eye him with suspicion. His harping on the Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin no longer wins new friends, while the saffroners too have ceased to be impressed beyond a point. Sangma belongs to the category of politicians who are lost without a big party masthead above them. For the simple reason that thanks to the vital factor of tribalism in Meghalaya and other states in the north-east, he does not have the mass base to influence electoral outcomes in any of the other 23 seats in the region.
But Sangma's membership of the commission is being viewed with some optimism in the north-east, not just because he hails from the region. After all, this was the region where one of the first demands for reviewing the Constitution was raised during the six-year Assam movement. And nowhere in the country has this subject been discussed and debated more than in Assam, where the prevailing opinion is in favour of inserting correctives in the Constitution to bring about true and effective federalism in the country. It is a different matter, though, that the exertions of the commission are more likely to remain on paper given the sensitivities involved and the composition of the present Lok Sabha.
Obviously enjoying the limelight after a period of some ignominy out of the Congress, Sangma said this week: "It is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to select the panel. But let me tell you that I have not been chosen because of my political ideology. I guess it is because of my academic and professional capabilities. Let me assure that I will be fair to the extent I can be, without carrying any political baggage". He will surely have to be more than just fair if he has to regain some of the acceptability he enjoyed until some time ago. Irrespective of the fate of the commission and its recommendations, one can be sure that Sangma and its members will have ample television opportunities to talk about their activities, while the press will soon have `reports' of who proposed what, and who opposed what during commission meetings. All said, not exactly a bad deal for an out of power politician.
Like some leaders from the minorities in the BJP, Sangma knows how to work the system. Known for his strong allegiance to the Bible, bottle and the guitar, Sangma is the quintessential north-easterner, but unlike many from the region, does not suffer from a sense of diffidence. He doesn't want the people from the region to be patronised, but wants them to stand on equal terms with the rest of the country. But then not many know how to work the system; the responsibility clearly is on him to tell them how to work it.