In democracy, politicians who make it big, carry with them the hopes and despairs of many. Santosh Mohan Dev, who passed away on 2 August at 86 in his home town Silchar, was a seven-time Member of Parliament from Assam’s Barak valley as well as from Tripura. As almost a permanent member of any Congress ministry since 1980 to its chief whip in the lower house of parliament, Dev was a deft political manager, as stated rather critically, by his senior, Golam Osmani, two- time member of parliament of the Congress.
leader Nurul Huda, who posed the toughest challenge in his political career. Dev’s Achilles hill was his rather ambitious project of bringing down the Left Front government led by Nripen Chakrabarty in the late 1980s, by means fair and foul.
Despite frills and jolts in his marathon political career spanning three decades, Dev was truly a people’s choice and a figure of adoration and contrition. His strategic moves during parliament elections in Silchar and Tripura in 1991 created a storm in the tea cup, as he left Silchar to contest from the West Tripura seat. In his absence, Silchar, his fortress, went to the Bharatiya Janata Party for the first time, represented by Kabindra Purkayastha. When he returned to wrest back the seat in 1996, he suffered the most humiliating defeat in the hands of Purkayastha, which also decimated his electoral base in Tripura. The Left Front got Tripura back from Dev and his party in 1993.
In the meantime, Dev got the name of “Santras” Mohon Dev, for his alleged role in the violence that took place during the 1988 Tripura elections that saw the defeat of Nripen Chakrabarty. For Dev, it was a very tough time, as he lost in both Tripura and Silchar.
His spirit of “never say die”’ was the reason for a turnaround as the movement for a Central University was led by the All Cachar-Karimganj Students’ Association between 1985 and 1995. With his close proximity to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Dev played a major role in getting the Assam University Bill passed in Parliament in 1989. Although the bill became an act, establishing the university was a challenge as Brahmaputra Valley politicians were not ready to give in unless they also were granted a similar Central University. Dev held several negotiations to end the rift by allowing the demand for a central university in the Brahmaputra valley to be conceded by the Centre and thereby opening the door of setting up the central university in Silchar. Indeed both Tezpur University and Assam University, Silchar, were inaugurated by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao on the same day in 1994. It was no small contribution to the landlocked and remote area Barak valley, as it marked fulfilment of a larger hope in higher education for an aspiring marginalised community.
Dev was a successful driver of political emotions. During the Assam Movement from 1978-85, students from the Barak Valley were killed and assaulted in many higher educational institutions in the Brahmaputra valley. Dev stood as a pillar of courage and hope, as students from the valley got all kinds of support from him as a central minister. It also created a ripe condition for reviving the demand for a separate central university for the Barak Valley, on the basis of which Dev could unite all sections of people before he got re-elected in 1999 from Silchar and went onto become chief whip of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.
When he was not an MP or a minister, Dev often organised cricket or football matches and created enthusiasm among the sports lovers. Because of his continuous initiatives, Silchar got a stadium. That also helped him win people’s confidence during his election campaigns.
Dev was at the helm of several ministries at the Centre, like telecom, defence, steel and heavy industries. He held state, deputy, independent as well as full charge of ministries and became one of the major confidantes of the Congress’s central leadership in helping to resolve any party or national-level crisis, which arose often in a nascent post-liberalised economy of the 1990s. Dev also was the one who set up the Congress’s policy and strategy making bodies and effectively charted out the right political line both during comfort and crisis.
His political skill of crisis management was beyond doubt. His handling of the affairs of the United Front when the Congress was offering outside support to Deve Gowda, Chandrasekhar and Gujral-led ministries was reckoned with amazement by his party and non-party colleagues. During the regime of Deve Gowda, Dev was able to get a major deal for the Barak Valley — that of broad gauge conversion of the Badarpur-Lumding hill tracks in 1996. It was completed by the Modi government in 2015 but the design, planning and structural engineering works were actively overseen by Dev himself. One could say that in both the setting up of central university and fighting for broad gauge, Dev played an important role, which gave him a permanent place in the hearts of the people of the Barak Valley.
In the context of North-east India, he figured as a major player in deciding the Congress’ political correctness in all the seven states. Trained in management in the UK and US, he was an able and shrewd manager who combined skills of obliging people with power, pelf and promises. He was able to keep his promises in a significant manner by pursuing the government, be it when he was in opposition or in power.
Dev’s magical skills of turning an adversity to his advantage and winning over foes were the most enviable of his qualities, which even bitter critics cannot deny. A young journalist from Tripura who tweeted his angst after his death made a stark distinction that Dev would never disturb his home turf in Silchar while he spelt terror for Tripura. Indeed, the life of a politician today is never free from such controversies. Dev also had certain human weaknesses that arose during his last tenure as minster of heavy industries during 2004 to 2009, when he was accused of corruption and nepotism in the departments under his control.
In Dev’s chequered political career success was followed by bumpy rides. In Aizwal, people still remember how he ensured the defeat of Lalddenga’s Mizo National Front in 1988, of course, at the behest of his leader, the late Rajiv Gandhi, especially by playing covert politics of defection.
It is also known that Dev was actively involved in the Bodoland movement from 1986 to 1990 that was one the major causes of instability for Assam’s first AGP government. He was also known for a similar role in throttling the Janata Dal government and bringing the Congress back to power in 1999. In a sense he was a maker or breaker as far as the Congress was concerned. But that did not deter him from asserting his position in a Chanakya-like manner when he did not openly criticise the Mandir movement but vividly criticised Mandal.
When Indira Gandhi returned post-Emergency, Dev made the most of his new found clout. One remembers the day when he stood before a marauding crowd at the main thoroughfare of Silchar throwing stones at Mrs Gandhi during her visit after the Emergency. Dev’s role in 1979 against Mizos in Silchar or Hindu-Muslim riots in 1980 still remains a question mark in the political discussion on his life and work.
Dev stands out as the true successor of the legendary Moinul Hoque Choudhury, who was termed the maker of modern South Assam. In his death, the marginalised the Barak valley has lost its tallest political personality of the 20th century, whose place cannot be filled up easily. His daughter Sushmita Dev carries his treasure trove of political skills and people of the Barak Valley would now look to her. All said and done, the rise of Sushmita Dev is not just a legacy but a continuity of her father’s unfinished deeds.
(The writer is an author, philosopher and human rights activist from Silchar and teaches at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong)