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The
Politics of Shame and Shambles
By Vikram Nongmaithem
“
Bad faith is bad policy.”
-------Edmund Burke-------
There was a time not so long ago, when the minds
of the great masses of our state populace was
buried in a deep and dark abyss created out of
the political gimmicking by our power starved
politicians. It had almost reached a breaking
point that could have plunged the state of
Manipur into utter chaos, disunity and suspicion
among the various tribes in the state. The
widespread protests resulting out of the
Indo-Naga agreement of June 14, 2001, which
would have extended the cease-fire between the
Indian Government and the NSCN (I-M) beyond the
borders of Nagaland brought tremors in the feet
of almost all the Manipuris.
The
fear psychosis that a possible disintegration of
the territorial integrity of the state may take
place in some near future cropped up in the
hearts of Manipuris. The bandhs, blockades etc.
and the torching of the State Assembly buildings
and the political institutions of the state
resulted in the loss of the lives of 18
civilians when the armed forces tried to control
the raging mob on June 18. This killing of
innocents has opened up a brand new chapter in
the history of Manipur and it can be cited as a
chapter in the political education of the
people.
While
our so-called leaders and power hungry
politicians are clamoring for the ornamented
thrones and bungalows, the bells of the Assembly
Elections 2002 are ringing loud and clear into
our ears. Kudos to our politicians for the mess
they created in the last year in Manipur and
their moral bravery to contest in the elections
again. Who can beat our politicians in the game
of corruption, nepotism, favoritism and other
maladies of the same species?
However
the recent happenings in the politics of the
state and the floating of new political parties
like the Democratic Peoples’ Party (DPP), the
Manipur National Conference (MNC) etc. and the
spate of violence that is reported everyday in
our newspapers are interesting moves to watch.
The news, although making good sales, is
bringing doubts into our minds if it would be
possible to keep faith on the system. We are
left to wonder in confusion as to which party we
should cast our ballots.
On
the other hand most of the insurgent outfits in
the state are not making a declaration of
boycotting the coming elections. The UNLF, a
major insurgent organization has candidly
declared that it would not indulge in any kind
of petty politicking in the forthcoming
elections, as it does not recognize the Indian
Constitution. However, the blank firings that we
hear every night testify to the truth that some
gun wielding guys are out there still to affect
the outcome of the elections.
The
forced withdrawal of the nominations of some
Naga Congress candidates by the NSCN (I-M), the
ban imposed on the candidature of one valley
candidate by the KYKL(O) and the series of
attacks in the homes of some candidates also
make it clear that all the militants are not
remaining in silence. That there must be some
sort of a hidden agenda behind all these
happenings can be easily perceived by most of
the people. No doubt, the state is going to the
polls as a core function and symbol of
democratic culture. But it is becoming some sort
of democratic anarchy when most people have lost
faith in the system as a whole although they
still continue to wear its coated colors.
Today,
we are in an age of information culture where
information or propaganda whether true or false
results in outcomes that are beyond man’s
capability to measure. In such an age a time
must come when peoples’ destinies are no
longer to be molded and modeled by politicians
who claim to represent them and who are the
modern medicine men of diplomacy. The potent
force of public opinion has already extended its
field of activity across the barbed wires and
fences of individuals and nations and the human
world is rapidly developing its universal organ
of voice and sense of hearing to a very high
degree of sensitivity.
Political
criticism based on narrow ethnic outlook,
nepotism and modern day maladies of all kinds
would not do to save a state like Manipur, which
is in itself a little mosaic of different ethnic
groups. The declaration of the Indo-Naga
Cease-fire of June 14, 2001 (now revoked), which
has its range of mischief in bringing a cultural
and ethnic divide amongst the various groups
also led to a dissemination of poisonous
slanders. The instruments of propaganda have
today become a permanent political necessity,
not only for informing the world of facts but
also deluding it.
The
history of Manipur has reached a stage when
moral force has to be acknowledged by politics
and captured at any cost, even at the cost of
truth. The power of the Kalashnikov culture has
attained a degree of virulent perfection never
before achieved and this power does not hesitate
to assert its unashamed supremacy in so many
cases of shortsighted stupidity and fanatical
barbarism. Is it not high time we think and act?
Is it not high time we ponder and work for a
better future? How long shall we keep on
debating whether terrorism, state or through
other agents, is legal or illegal and acceptable
or unacceptable? We are a people fed up with
police batons bloodily busy cracking our
unresisting heads and their wrong deeds
admiringly defended by authorities that are
majestically aloof from the tragic scene. This
was what we saw with our naked eyes on June 18,
2001.
Today,
Manipur waits for a new and noble technique for
all reparations of national adjustment. Let us
hope the newly going-to-be elected leaders
provide us the ways and means for solving the
problems. We are torching our own homes when we
say or think we are not responsible for this
state of affairs. Let us vote for those leaders
who would not fail to gauge the expectations of
the masses so that we will not feel cheated as
we have felt so many times. Together let us
create an instrument for giving expression to
the spirit of the age in the field of peaceful
political intercommunication. By segregating
ethics and depriving it from public life most of
the modern day Manipuris have until now, never
seriously questioned and acknowledged the need
for higher ideals in politics or in practical
affairs.
In
the old barbaric age, men’s hunger did not
impose any limits on its range of food, which
even included the human flesh, but with the
evolution of society this has been banished. But
it is a bit doubtful if the situation in Manipur
has changed for the better. For how long shall
we continue to howl ourselves that Manipur has
become a rotten nation because of its
integration to India or its partly blinded
history doped with the neo-colonialism of the
elitist Mayang corporatism?
Fight
is necessary against the evils that relentlessly
threaten us, for by tolerating untruth we admit
their claim to exist. But violence begets
violence. The war on human conscience must be
based on moral warfare and not on Kalashnikovs.
This moral warfare must start from within our
own body politic. The coming elections will act
as the touchstone of our democratic faith-our
Right of Choice. It is worthwhile to observe
that one political commentator had crudely
remarked in a national newspaper, “In Manipur
…MLAs change their political parties more
often than they do their underwear”(April,
1973, The Indian Express). It sounds ironically
hard but it is a fact that we all can see
clearly.
Every
time elections come political parties seek votes
on slogans such as stability, clean
administration, economic development, law and
order, territorial integrity, quality education
and so on and none of the parties seem to have
done any serious thinking on how their
proclaimed objectives are going to be fulfilled.
In fact, “political stability” is the leit
motif for election campaigns in the electoral
history of the state.
But
now everyone sees these empty slogans are
unimportant. Honest people shy away from
politics because of the fear of being victimized
and this most important thing is left to
undesirable elements. The popular saying,
“Politics is the last resort of the
scoundrel,” has proved itself true time and
again in Manipur. It is high time we stop
considering elections as a market complex where
the electorates and the candidates have a place
to bargain the price of a voter’s mandate
solely in terms of money and muscle power.
This
elections to the Legislative Assembly of Manipur
might have taken place in an ambience of the
common man’s pervasive distrust of virtually
every political party. However the outcome may
also prove the contrary to such a notion. Let us
just hope the government that is going to be
formed after the elections does not turn out to
be a Frankenstein for the people of Manipur.
Well, one has to keep fingers crossed and wait
and see what the people have decided.
(Courtesy:
The Imphal Free Press)
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