| Promises, promises
With an unfriendly electorate this time, seasoned politicians who will be contesting the 8th State Assembly elections seem set to suffer. Or will they? The public hatred of the politicians for their unchecked defections and misdeeds, which had sown the seeds for imposition of President Rule and the extension of the ceasefire to Manipur, has hardly died down and the politicians who were held responsible for the State's turmoil are undeterred by the violent protest against them.
It will be known after the results of the polls whether these chameleons and non-performers are forgiven by the people or not.
What is important at the moment is poll promises. It is time the electorate took issues confronting the State very seriously. Till now, the territorial integrity and corruption aspects seem to take the limelight with most of the political parties promising major thrusts on these issues. It is worth mentioning that though the issue of safeguarding the territorial integrity has become a big issue after the ceasefire extension, it had been confined to only a few parties earlier.
In the current situation, the BJP stressing on enforcing economic discipline though it also mentions other things like corruption and territorial integrity.
The newly formed DPP has called for upholding human rights removal of black laws, safeguarding territorial integrity and uniform land laws for both the hill and valley. Likewise, other parties including the, Congress, Samata Party, MSCP, NCP, MNC, CPI etc. have made these issues their poll planks as well. The Federal Party of Manipur has included solving the militancy problem besides protecting the State territory and improving the health of State economy. Making promises is very easy, what is difficult is translating them into action.
Despite all these, what needs the immediate attention of the electorates is to check out whether the political parties were making hollow promises or not. In the prevailing circumstances, it is common knowledge that these issues will be put up by each and every party except for a few variations. What is important is to see whether the manifestoes or the election issues brought forward by the respective parties spell out the answers to die problems and how they are going to implement the promises.
Previous elections have shown that poll promises were made only to be broken. They forgot the promise after winning the elections. The State's political leaders should now move a step ahead. They should show the answers and explain how they are going to fulfill them. Otherwise their promises will turn hollow. All the parties need to look seriously into the grave financial condition of the State also for it can take many faces.
The economic condition was one of the reasons for the fall of the then Nipamacha Ministry thought internal squabbling were abundant within his coalition. But much will depend on the political awareness of the electorates. The results of the elections will prove whether the June uprising is the sign of political maturity of the people.
(Courtesy: The
Sangai Express) |
Welcome! 
International
Features
