Pasighat: In view of the simultaneous assembly and parliamentary election around the corner, the Political Science department of the state’s oldest and premier college, Jawaharlal Nehru College (JNC), Pasighat on Tuesday organized a state-level symposium on current hot topic ‘Money culture in politics-a threat to Democracy’ which was attended by Prof. Nani Bath from Rajiv Gandhi University, Doimukh (Itanagar) and Group Captain Retired, Mohonto Pangging Pao as prime resource persons.
The symposium was also graced by East Siang Dy. Commissioner, Tayi Taggu as Chief Guest, Registrar, Arunachal Pradesh University Pasighat, Narmi Darang as Guest of Honour and Doying Gumin College, Pasighat Principal, Dr. Egul Padung as Special Guest besides JNC Principal, Dr. Tasi Taloh, V/P Dr. Leki Sitang, Dr. Gomo Karbak, V/P DPGC, Kamki various department faculties and HoDs of the college and students.
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The symposium was organized in two sessions, inaugural and technical.
Speaking during the inaugural session, chief guest, DC Pasighat, Tayi Taggu said that everyone is a part of politics today, even if you are not interested in politics, politics is interested in you.
To do away with money culture in politics, the general masses, and the voters will have to avoid taking money from the contesting candidates.
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The Guest of Honour Narmi Darang and Special Guest, Egul Padung also stated the same and laid emphasis on doing away with money culture in politics due to which genuine and poor candidates can’t contest elections.
Egul Padung went on to say that there are several anomalies in the entire election process in some polling booths. “I have personally seen here in Pasighat, that some political parties and their workers use the voter IDs of many others after buying them with money and letting other labourers camped in a political worker’s site to cast votes, but polling agents don’t do anything to check such illegalities,” added Padung.
Meanwhile, speaking as a resource person, Mohonto Pangging Pao, Group Captain Retired, said that the lesser population in Arunachal Pradesh is the root cause of the money culture in politics.
“On average, in each assembly constituency there are 5,000 to 12,000 voters in Arunachal and out of which buying 3,000 to 7,000 voters ensures the winning of an MLA and it is easier for a rich public leader to buy voters. So, the lesser population in Arunachal Pradesh is also a reason behind money culture in electoral politics in comparison to other state’s constituencies where population per constituency is more than a lakh due to which buying of votes is not possible there”.
Pangging also suggested delimitation in assembly constituencies in order to do away with money culture by saying that the lesser number of constituencies will increase the population in each assembly constituency which will not be easy for a leader to buy votes any longer.
Prof. Nani Bath also laid emphasis on doing away with money culture in electoral politics as well as in student politics. Prof. Bath also said that, if given the support of like-minded people, he is contemplating filing a PIL in the Court against the provision of the constitution in which a candidate/leader in Arunachal Pradesh is not required to give proof of income source which leads to huge accumulation of money by many leaders and others by means of corruption etc.
“By filling the PIL to scrap the particular provision, we will be successful in dealing with corruption and money culture in Arunachal Pradesh”, added Prof Bath. He also said that the money culture in politics is really a threat to democracy.
On the part of HoD, Political Science, JN College, Pasighat, Coordinator of the symposium, Danggen Dameng said that the topic of the state-level symposium ‘Money culture in politic- a threat to democracy’ was chosen seeing the present scenario of money culture in politics about which state’s chief minister, Pema Khandu has also been raising in recent past.
He hoped that such a hot topic and its deliberate discussion would create more awareness among the people/voters and the elected leaders/candidates. One student alumni of the Pol. Science, JNC Pasighat, Tapin Lute Tamin also spoke on the occasion and widely elaborated on the topic by bringing out the money culture even in student politics.