Purno’s somersaults

Former Lok Sabha speaker P. A. Sangma’s much-hyped North-East People’s Forum (NEFP) suffered a blow when the General Secretary Radha Binod Koijam resigned. The former Manipur chief minister believes that the forum to be effective in serving the genuine interests of the region will have to be either equidistant from or equi-proximate to the two camps; some sort of non-alignment it has to be according to this veteran tactician. For Purno, the brain behind the forum, it has no appeal. And he has in fact openly ruled out any such possibility. He immediate goal is Congress-free North-East and to fill the void with his NEFP. “If the happenings in Nagaland and Arunachal are any indication, time is running out for the Congress and it is only a matter of time before the Grand Old Party (GOP) of India is wiped out in the region,” the erstwhile blue-eyed boy of the Congress declares with glee. He is moulding NEFP as a force of non-Congress and non-Left parties. Obviously, there are doubting Thomases in Purno Sangma’s ant of the region and for the hardships of the people who continue to remain neglected and deprived. There is no gain saying that  ‘people’s leaders’ sent by the people to Delhi had always given preferences to their own goals rather than airing the grievances and need of the region. That is why despite such tall leaders as we have, the Northeast voice was never properly raised in Delhi. They used the North-East (a euphemism for the tribal) card only to consolidate their position vis-à-vis Delhi.  Who can better fit the description than Purno A. Sangma?  But for a brief period when he was the chief minister of Meghalaya, he has been the face of Northeast in the capital. During the Congress rule, he held many important portfolios including Information and Broadcasting and Labour. He was the first tribal leader to be elevated to the cabinet rank. At that time, he did not find any fault with the Congress or its handling of the North-East affairs. The fault lines in Delhi policy and the Congress approach have stuck uld learn to speak in one voice and work for the collective good in New Delhi instead of spending all their energies in sectional interests or worse furthering their own nests. Otherwise tomorrow in the region will in no way be different from yesterday and today.

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