Bleak Chakouba (November 19)
By Jagjit T.

Today's Ningol Chakouba festival is likely to be bleak one, if not in terms of spirit, then in terms of extravagance of gifts and richness of the traditional feasts that each household holds for its married womenfolk on this day. The fact that most government employees have not received their salaries for more than two months has meant that everyone has to exercise the maximum economy in preparing for the festival. 

This may be no bad thing, given that we are a people that often tend to indulge in excess and ostentation, but it is also true that this should not have happened. Both the striking employees and the state administration must share the blame for this. If not for the ongoing strike, most employees might have received their salaries well before Ningol Chakouba, and if either side had been a little flexible during the negotiations held during the past week, there might have been a chance of release of salaries in time for the festival.

The several rounds of talks during the past few days in an attempt to resolve the ongoing impasse followed the same pattern; both sides essentially stuck to their original positions and where one side made concessions, the other declined to come the rest of the way. In the process neither side has come up smelling of roses. If the government can be accused of ignoring the rights of the employees, the latter can equally be accused of refusing to see the imperatives that forced the government to take up austerity measures, of which the withdrawal of allowances is only one. 

No one can deny that the state has been suffering from a deep-rooted financial crisis since the past few years, or that drastic corrective measures are needed. Nor can anyone dispute that salaries and pensions for employees account for a highly disproportionate share of the government's expenditure and it was not unnatural that the government employees should be among those targeted when the time has come to take necessary austerity measures.

It might help if everyone does a complete rethink of why the government exists and how it is supposed to function. We Manipuris talk so much of our rights, but we often forget our responsibilities. That is all too true for government employees as well. For one thing, they seem to have forgotten the fact that the government exists, or should exist, for the welfare of the people of the state as a whole, and not just to look after the interests of its employees. 

For another, the popular perception of a government employee is of someone who comes into the office to chat and while away their time, and who need their palms greased to get anything done. Not that we want to tar everyone with the same brush, but honesty is relative, and sufficiently large number of these kinds of people exist in government service to make the description stick. We need only recall the too frequent complaints from the public about government offices, schools and health centers in the hill and rural areas being abandoned on a near-permanent basis by those who are supposed to be posted there. 

The justification advanced for the revision of pay scales effected in 1999 that state government employees cannot be deprived of the benefits enjoyed by Central employees doing the same work is certainly valid, but the fact remains that the work done should be commensurate with the benefits enjoyed. That, we have not seen. 

To present a rather simplistic although still valid argument, if rate of development were in direct proportion to the number of people in government service, Manipur should have been the most advanced of the north-eastern states, given that the state has the highest proportion of government employees in relation to population. This is certainly not the case. 

There are a variety of reasons for the lack of development in Manipur, of course, not the least of which are wrongheaded and populist plans and policies followed by successive governments, but the very size of our bloated bureaucracy, not to speak of the inefficiency and lethargy that have become by-words for it, has doubtlessly played its part. 

A recent statement issued by the employees' JAC argues that there is no relation between funds meant for development and funds allocated for salaries and pensions, that they come under separate heads in the state budget, but this is an ingenious argument, and sidesteps the main point. When the state government has limited resources, and salaries and pensions account for some 80% of expenditure, simple arithmetic dictates that only a miniscule amount would by left for development activities. 

The JAC's position seem to be that the government must somehow find the means to fulfill its demands, perhaps by roping in the Center, but this is the kind of thinking that has for so long prevented us from finding our feet. In any case, the Center is not a mystic Tree of Wealth. Like it or not, in the financial crisis that has been gripping the state, the state government employees must recognize that they are part of the problem they have in finding a solution.

(The writer is the leader writer of the Imphal Free Press)
(Courtesy: The Imphal Free Press)

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