| Eyes on the hills
The tricky thing or beauty, depending on one's
perception, of election in Manipur are the different sets of agendas candidates and political parties have in the hills and valley constituencies and perhaps at no other time is this more pronounced than in the ongoing 8th Assembly election, for which the first phase poll, covering 40 of the 60 Assembly seats, was held on February 14.
If territorial integrity of Manipur was the catch word for all the candidates in the valley constituencies then in the hill constituencies, the area of major concern is the ongoing peace talk between the Government of India and the two factions of the NSCN particularly in Naga dominated districts. There is nothing wrong in having different set of agendas for different constituencies for it is our firm belief that elections and by extension democracy should address the key issues of each and every single community residing within the same polity.
However on the other hand it becomes doubly important for all responsible citizens to ensure that rumor mongers and those who have propensity to blow things out of hand and misinterpret issues are kept at arms length and not allowed to play games that will prove harmful to all. Again it is also important for all to realize that different sets of priorities and agendas do not necessarily mean opposing viewpoints.
And even in case of diametrically opposing view points there should always be room to accommodate differing view points for this is what democracy is all about and election is but one of the most important pillars of a democratic society. As a rider of this we would also like to add free and fair election where the electorates are not influenced by outside force to vote for any particular by outside force to vote for any particular party or candidate but for the candidate of their choice.
Now that the first phase poll is over and thankfully without any major unwanted incident, all eyes are now focused on the hill constituencies, where the second phase polling is scheduled for February 21. As DGP AA Siddiqui announced to the press during the run up to the hustings in one of his press conferences, the main worry for the security personnel will be in the hill constituencies. The rough terrain and typical topography will certainly test the resilience and effectiveness of the security personnel in ensuring free and fair polling.
Apart from ensuring that nothing untoward happens on Election Day, the security machinery have to also ensure that candidates in the hills are not intimidated and given the lack of adequate security cover, this will certainly prove an onerous task. BSF DIG (Manipur and Nagaland) PK Misra has started talking tough and even announced that if polling stations where BSF men are deployed are rigged or captured then the officers concerned would be pulled up and even suspended from service.
Tough talk indeed and expected, as tough times demand tough talk and yes, tough action. However one point is that security officers should not reflect the clear picture of how the elections passed off. There have been reports that everything went off peacefully for the simple reason that security persons preferred to look the other way.
(Courtesy: The Sangai Express) |
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