The recent campaigns by pressure groups instructing citizens to halt celebrations and refrain from bursting firecrackers during festivals bring this dynamic into sharp relief.
While environmental concerns surrounding firecrackers are frequently cited, the reality of selective outrage in the region lays bare a deeper, more systemic irony: indignation is weaponised when politically convenient, yet muted when it touches the heavy pillars of the local economy and governance.
The Backdrop: Livelihoods, History, and the Non-Tribal Reality
To understand why localised crackdowns on cultural celebrations spark resentment, one must examine the socio-economic tightrope walked by permanent non-tribal citizens in Meghalaya. Many of these families trace their presence back to historical administrative transitions from the Assam legislative framework, carrying half-baked statutory rights that have steadily eroded.
For decades, non-tribals who purchased land legally and built lives in the state and especially in the in non-European areas have faced stifling business conditions, marked by heavy bureaucratic hurdles and exorbitant overhead costs for licensing. To superimpose upon these situations the psychological toll of being treated as perpetual "outsiders," despite generational roots, driven by political mandates designed to favour specific demographics, is not just hurtful but an active charge of survival.
While the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution was originally conceived to protect indigenous tribal populations, its practical implementation has often functioned as an exclusive mechanism that heavily disregards the lives of permanent non-tribals, stripping away basic economic agency.
Fear, Impunity, and Historical Amnesia
Insecurities among certain political and tribal leadership structures have occasionally manifested in darker ways: through fear-mongering, retaliatory rhetoric, and implicit protection for "identified miscreants." History bears witness to tragic episodes where violence and arson left innocent human lives destroyed and families destitute. Facts require no special licences or no-objection certificates; when pressure groups operate with impunity, accountability vanishes. I will not count the violent incidents here to remind us of the horrors.
However, when one sees times changing and prompt action from larger states like Delhi towards minorities, it is noteworthy. Just today, the man identified as Amir Shoukeen, who was involved in discriminating against youth from Tripura in Delhi, has been booked and produced before the courts of Tripura. All this is with the active support of the Delhi Police and the support of the Tripura Police. Yet here in Meghalaya, we have witnessed, during a person's lifetime, no conviction.
Selective Outrage: Crackers Versus Catastrophes
Against a backdrop like this, when dictates are passed by pressure groups and the administration, permanent non-tribals are hurt-and hurt severely. Not because they can smoke up the city with crackers, but because of the contradictions.
Crackers are undoubtedly a nuisance, contributing to temporary noise and air pollution. However, so are unregulated vehicles, and so is rampant mining. This is not a way to justify permission for bursting crackers. Every community has its own struggle towards modernity, and people are learning. But should we allow years of stress to be exposed through loud crackers? No. But sadly, we see that when crackers are smoking up the city, we must then understand that bursting crackers becomes a sign of protest rather than a mere act of burning crackers. Shall we let such animosity create binaries of destruction for both people and the environment?
Consider the stark disparity in public action:
The Mines: Scores of lives have been lost in Meghalaya's hazardous, often illegal, rat-hole mines. Yet pressure groups rarely muster the same synchronised, high-visibility outrage to shut down deadly mining practices or secure the welfare of miners.
The Hypocrisy: Society happily builds homes using Meghalaya cement, riverbed sand, and tiles extracted from distant states like Rajasthan, remaining deliberately blind to the environmental degradation required to source them.
When pressure groups single out cultural celebrations while ignoring systemic economic and environmental disasters, the campaign stops being about environmentalism. It becomes about control, cultural policing, political signalling, and, most importantly, a voice of superiority.
The Gimmick of Sectarian Politics
The irony deepens when one looks at the social fabric. Many members of these vocal pressure groups are business colleagues, friends, or even relatives through mixed lineages. When individuals who share daily economic and social spaces suddenly adopt aggressive political postures for individual or organisational benefit, the manoeuvre exposes itself for what it is, "a political gimmick".
From the Chief Minister to local governance structures, political leadership often appears bound by an ideological alignment centred on supremacy rather than substantive constitutional equity. Sectarian politics thrives in this vacuum, overriding institutional boundaries and distracting from real developmental needs like education, skill-building, and true sustainable economic infrastructure.
We can conclude by asking what true justice is, whether for the environment, local communities, or indigenous preservation. Such hopes cannot coexist with self-centred opportunism. Until development penetrates deeper than rhetoric and moves past superficial bans, selective outrage will remain nothing more than a persuasive attempt to profit a few powerful at the expense of the many. It is really time to start building multi-community progressive setups to put up a respectful and dignified fight the challenges that affect everyone, rather than resorting to mere posters of social-media politics.
Yours etc.,
Dhruv C,
Via email