Editor,
The recent cabinet reshuffle in Meghalaya has been hailed by the government as a mid-term “reset.” But let us strip away the rhetoric: this reshuffle is not about renewal, it is about regression. It is not about governance, it is about power. It is not a reset, it is a calculated gambit—where democracy bends to dynasty and matriliny is reduced to hollow folklore.
Consider the facts. For the first time in years, Meghalaya now has no women in the cabinet. Not one. In a state that flaunts its matrilineal identity to the world, the exclusion is deafening. Out of 60 MLAs, only three are women—barely 5%, well below the already shameful national average of 9%. By removing Ampareen Lyngdoh, the lone woman minister, the government has silenced women’s voices at the very moment when Meghalaya faces a surge in crimes against women and children, rising domestic violence, and a worsening drug crisis. When the crisis is most acute, the cabinet has chosen to erase those most affected from the table of power.
But the betrayal does not stop with gender. Three seats in the cabinet now belong to a single family—the Dhar dynasty—which controls 25% of the council of ministers. This is not just unusual, it is unprecedented anywhere in the country, perhaps the world. The Dhar clan already dominates the state’s road and infrastructure contracts; now, with cabinet power in hand, they are poised to consolidate business and governance into a single dynasty-run enterprise. What we are witnessing is not representative democracy but crony capitalism dressed up as coalition politics. This is a corporate takeover of government by what many already call the “Dhar Company.”
So let us be clear: this reshuffle is not about injecting momentum into governance. It is about entrenching dynasty and deepening monopoly. It excludes half the population while enriching a few. While families struggle to put food on the table, fight addiction in their homes, and protect their daughters from violence, the government has chosen to protect only dynasties and contracts.
Meghalaya deserves better than this dangerous fusion of patriarchy, dynasty, and crony capitalism. A state that prides itself on matriliny cannot silence women. A democracy cannot afford to hand over a quarter of its cabinet to one family. And a people struggling with unemployment, addiction, and insecurity cannot survive under a government that puts family before fairness, and contracts before citizens.
This reshuffle will not be remembered as renewal—it will be remembered as betrayal. Meghalaya deserves leaders, not landlords of power.
Khlur Basan
Shillong
Via e-mail
