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Until the Next PR
The elections to the Manipur Legislative Assembly have been announced. By the end of February next year, if all goes as per schedule, a popular government would have been installed and the 8th Manipur Legislative, the successor to the fallen 7th edition of it, brought back to life. This also means, the days of the current President's Rule are numbered.
Under normal circumstance, there would have been wide rejoicing at the end of an emergency administrative arrangement, but the cynicism of the present time is such that the most visible response from the public is one of general indifference. Nothing really seems to matter anymore. Politics does not seem to be associated with hope, idealism or nation building. It has been reduced to just the status of another profession with many worldly fringe benefits. Depressing.
Nothing can also be more harmful for the society than the public beating the image of politics has taken in the past few years. For like it or not, politics is something a society cannot just do without. The healthier it is, the healthier will also be the society. Our politics has sunk to such ignominy, and we have nobody else to blame but our leaders. It is a matter of great shame that today the ability to engineer defections, buy loyalties, topple governments etc., are the defining criterion of good and bad politics.
A recall of the past one or two Assemblies will testify to this. As for instance, the post of the Speaker has been reduced to that of a party executioner, with the 10th schedule as the axe. We all have seen how MLAs were coerced into towing party lines on threats of disqualification, how those who still refused hacked mindlessly, how political maneuvers that appeared as blatant defections from the point of view of the laymen were redefined as merely party reunions, and harmless mergers.
The state has also seen how quickly MLAs can change color in the manner in which the last popular government led by Radhabinod Koijam fell, and also in the manner in which nobody or no party ended up with either the nerve or the number to stake claim to form the next government. In popular political parlance, President's Rule is 'imposed'. But in the case of Manipur this term would be such a misnomer, for in most of its cases, PR came, as there was nobody to form the government and for the fact that politics cannot be left in a vacuum.
And now arrangements are being made for fresh elections to take up that vacuum. But the question remains, how much would politics and politicians have changed in the space of six months or so that the state was without an Assembly? Is a new horizon on card or is the state merely going to see the same old, sour wine in the new bottle of the 8th Legislative Assembly? Can leopards really change spots?
The pessimism is such that not many seem to believe anything very exciting or earth shaking is about to come their way. Instead, the more heard question is how long would the next popular government last before it begins self-destructing? Well, the present spell of Presidents Rule is coming to an end by February, but the question also is, when will it be back? With many unresolved crises before the state, especially the financial crunch, the question actually assumes a threatening proportion.
(Courtesy: The Imphal Free Press) |
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