We really do not know the rationale behind the decision of the Government to scrap Gan-Ngai from the general holiday list but what we do know for certain is the flip flop stand of the Government has done nothing but harm the image of the Government. We know the SPF Government was forced to retract on its earlier decision due to the immense pressure mounted by the Demand Committee on Restoration of Gan-Ngai Holiday, an umbrella organization of various voluntary organizations of the Zeliangrong people. We also know that to the Zeliangrong community, Gan-Ngai is the most important and significant festival.
In many ways the flip flop stand of the Government over the whole issue reflects the immaturity of the Ibobi Ministry. Was the decision to scrap Gan-Ngai from the general holiday list taken without giving any thought to the repercussions or was the SPF Cabinet under the delusion that there would be no hue and cry? If one looks at the issue from any perspective it will become clear that the decision to strike off Gan-Ngai from the holiday list and the decision to retract from the earlier stand and award the holiday tag to the festival reveal a Government that simply does not have any political maturity.
Along with Gan-Ngai, four other festivals were also struck off the holiday list. We reserve our comments on the four other festivals but the flip flop stand of the Cabinet has somewhat reduced Chief Minister O Ibobi and his council of Ministers something to a joke. Either way the SPF Government always stood to lose when it decided that Gan-Ngai should be scrapped from the holiday list. The very decision to scrap the festival from the holiday list exposed an insensitive Government and of course the roll back has also exposed that Chief Minister O Ibobi and his Council of Ministers are not men enough to stick to their stand.
This is not the first time the Government has been forced to withdraw its earlier decision. First we saw how the decision to lift prohibition had to be withdrawn in the face of stiff opposition from a number of quarters particularly from the Meira Paibis. It was not only the decision to lift prohibition that drew flaks from all but also the half baked idea that prohibition would be first lifted from the hills while leaving the valley area under prohibition. If the situation was not so serious the decision of the Government may have made the cut as one of the most pathetic jokes played on the people.
The point we are trying to stress is the Government seems to be stumbling from one embarrassment to another and all this is due to its failure to read the pulse of the people. We certainly do not expect a Congress led Government to come up with half baked ideas and policies but so far there has been nothing much to show except some highly comical developments like the decision to strike Gan-Ngai from the holiday list.
We know the number of holidays in a single calendar year is too much and we also agree that a good number of working hours must have been lost due to these holidays. On top of this there is the unscheduled bandhs and general strikes and we can picturise how many working hours are lost in a year.
However we would like to lay down that the Government should first concentrate on how much of the working hours available in a year are actually utilized. Do Government employees really put in their work to make the working hours productive or is the prevailing work culture something else that the number of working hours do not really matter for the simple fact that to a majority of the employees coming to office means whiling away one's time.
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