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Dynamics of Electoral Politics In Manipur
By Editorial Team, Taibang Paojen
While the recently elected assembly failed to ring out the President's Rule in Uttar Pradesh, a similar situation was avoided in the case of Manipur with the formation of a five party post-poll alliance called Secular Progressive Front (SPF). For the time being a coalition government, the Congress led five party alliance, which commands the allegiance of 36 MLAs in the 60 member Manipur Legislative Assembly, is in place. (Recently, the number of has increased to 38). But the parties in the Opposition are far from being reconciled to play their appointed role. Obviously, contradictions in the electoral bases of political parties have thwarted the logic of coalition formation in UP, while in Manipur coalition politics are being held to ransom by vaulting ambitions cutting across parties and elected individual members.
The irony is that, while the elections could not draw the curtain down on the President's rule in UP, Manipur may be heading for another spell of President's rule - and that too, sooner rather than later. Just a few days after the swearing in of the popular government led by Mr O Ibobi Singh, a possible crack (for the time being) had developed in the ruling SPF coalition, partly due to the internal contradiction and partly due to the Opposition's toppling game. The days and months ahead will thus test the ability of the Chief minister Ibobi Singh and his political guru Rishang Keishing to manage the myriad contradictions in the ruling coalition.
Interesting, each of the coalition governments witnessed in the country seems to have a different dynamics of its own. For example, UP and Manipur have seen qualitatively different political dynamics. While electoral politics in UP is largely shaped by caste and religious considerations, Manipur witnessed an individual based and, to some extend, in the hills, ethnicity based politics. These are largely due to the sociocultural setup as well as demographic composition marked by the seesaw of power control passing from one community/group to another.
These matrices of electoral politics have direct consequences on the postal political alliances in these two states. An alliance between Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party in UP was rendered anathema by the festering antagonism between their electoral bases, the OBCs (Other Backward Castes) and the Dalits. The root of the contradictions in the case of Manipur lies in the overweening ministerial aspirations of the elected members.
As a post-poll scenario, the logic of coalition politics arises mostly when there is a huge house with no single party getting a majority. Theoretically, a partnership based on compromise among ideologically affined political parties is inherent in coalition politics. To put it another way, this is the condition for successful practice of coalition politics. To put it another way, this is the condition for successful practice of coalition politics. Fidelity to this overriding principle is what has made politics an enduring institution in states like Kerala, and West Bengal.
In the case of Manipur, the deviation from the "ideal" has become the norm rather than the exception, and hence the fragility of coalitions. This is due to parties' withering away and individuals displacing it as the currency of politics. As a result UP and Manipur can be treated as the two paradigms of coalition politics in the county - one caste-based and religion-based politics and, the other, individual based. Though the parliamentary system of democracy originally is based on two-party system, its evolution in the India context has been along a multi-party orientation. This is perhaps inevitable in view of the diversity of ethnicity, language, culture and belief systems obtaining in the country. Today, the ideal is only opening up to various loopholes as mentioned above.
Coalition politics in Manipur largely centers around the equations as well as like and dislikes among the individual legislatures. Present 8th State Assembly is precisely facing this problem. With Ibobi Singh taking oath as CM of Manipur on March 7, 2002, the seeds of its fall or possible dissolution of the elected government had already become visible. Disenchantment among MLAs not given ministerial berths, carrying headlines in the local papers, brewed into almost a major revolt within the ruling SPF. But ministerial aspirations of individual MLAs within the five party coalition is not the sole challenge, though certainly the most serious one, for the debutante chief minister, Ibobi Singh. Before the ruling SPF consisting of the Congress, the Manipur State Congress Party (MSCP), CPI, National Congress Party (NCP) and Manipur Nationalist Congress (MNC) were formed, already there were differences of opinion among the MLAs of MSCP on joining the SPF coalition.
Serious problems also arose with allocation of ministerial berths. The Governor of Manipur as well as Congress observers from Delhi advised on having smaller ministry of minimize state expenditure. However, Th Chaoba Singh, MP and leader of MSCP, insisted on getting all his 7 MLAs ministerial berths in addition to a post of deputy chief minister for his party. The NCP also came up with similar demands. Even within the dominant coalition partner, the Congress, revolt simmered among its MLAs as many of them were not likely to get ministerial berths. Seven Congress MLAs who were not made ministers in the second ministerial expansion had threatened to break ranks on this issue. By the end of March, almost all the ruling MLAs were made (or promised) ministers, speaker, or chairmen of corporations. When the paper is written, there are thirty-four ministers in the Ibobi Singh ministry. (The number may increase soon).
The only disciplined party so far seems to be the CPI, though it had reportedly asked for the post of Speaker but without success. There are MLAs in the MSCP like Erabot Yumkham, initially a Congressman, who left the Congress after being denied party ticket. He is against MSCP joining a Congress-led alliance. For the time being, he has been silenced by virtue of finding a place in the Council of Ministers. The NCP with its three MLAs have also served notice that it may walk out of the alliance at the slightest dissatisfaction. From the outset thus, the marriage seems to be heading for the rock.
The unfolding of this low level politics in Manipur started from 1972 when the Congress party at the Center interfered with the functioning of the regional party, Manipur Peoples Party (MPP), which led the first coalition government after Manipur became full fledge state. After instigating defection, the Center imposed President's Rule in the state in 1973. The untold story, however, is that Manipur first exercised adult franchise on June 29, 1948 when the state was not yet merged into India. Retrospectively, Manipur thus has the distinction of being a pioneer of democratic politics in South Asia. The tragedy is that spirit manifestly inherent in this watershed event symbolizing the floodtide of a new political awakening as well as radical experiment with a new form of government under the aegis of the then ruling dynasty is now fled, and only the form remains.
The first of the salient features of the election is that it was a transition from the monarchical from the government to a democratic polity. However, both heads of the State (the king and the chief minister) were from the royal family. It was an experiment with a new form of polity - the electoral polity which people of Manipur experienced for the first time. Second, there were 53 legislatures out of which one (the post of CM) was nominated by the king, who happened to be the younger brother of the king who was transformed into figurehead under the constitution which was framed before the election was conducted. It laid down the norms for a multiparty system.
The percentage of voting was quite high, which implied that people were enthusiastically involved. There was no specific party manifesto. The only motto for each party was to work for the welfare of the people. The people of the hills were equally involved. Many Naga and Kuki legislators were ministers in the government. Even in the interim government prior to election, there was Muslim as well as tribal ministers.
Out of the 52 elected legislatures, Manipur State Congress with 13 elected members emerged as the single largest party in the 1948 elections. Other parties like Praja Party, Krishak Sabha (under Comrade Irabot) and Socialist Party also secured a substantive number of seats.
Independents too had a major role to play, securing in all 18 seats.
In spite of the Manipur State Congress becoming the single largest party, it could not form the government as no political party was ready to form a coalition with it. Nor could it muster enough independents to support it to reach the magic number. On the contrary, Praja Party, Krishak Sabha and independents formed a coalition government. The coalition process thus started in Manipur long back in 1948 when the State Assembly was set up for the first time in Manipur.
However, the new experiment could hardly last a period of one year when Manipur was merged into Indian Dominion on October 15, 1949 through an agreement, better known as Merger Agreement. There were different views, however, on the issue of merger. While most of the political parties as well as the King were against the merger (though the King signed the agreement under duress), Manipur State Congress was in its favor. Interestingly, State assembly was never consulted in effecting the merger agreement. But to the dismay of even the Manipur State Congress, which supported the Merger Agreement, Manipur was turned to a Part C state. This was contrary to the Manipur State Congress's expectations - full-fledged statehood for Manipur. The unfortunate story continued with Manipur later converted to Union territory only in 1963. Statehood came much later in 1972 after a long struggle of the people and various political parties. Disenchantment in the people led to the creation of the regional political party, MPP.
What may be seen is that the Government of India completely acted in a manner which, instead of nurturing the emergence of a full fledged democratic polity based on electoral politics in Manipur, aborted it. The evolution of democratic institutions was further stunted by new power equations imposed from Delhi. Instead of Manipur becoming an equal political constituent of India, Manipur was relegated to a part C state with the implication that the powers that be considered the erstwhile princely state and the forerunner of democratic politics in the subcontinent was not yet ready for self governance.
Slowly, in this historical phase from 1949 to 1972 a new form of political dependency was developed in the minds of people. That Delhi is there to decide our fate. An intricate form of neocolonialism operates here. The phenomena occurring in the political arena today - defection of MLAs, operation of money and muscle power in election, lack of party base, over dependence on the central leadership - are only syndromes of a deep rooted disease called
"neocolonialism". Given such a "neocolonial" political environment and a politics largely determined by the whims and fancies of individual legislatures, how far the people can expect the present assembly to provide a stable government is as relevant a question as it has always been in Manipur's chequered political horizon.
(Courtesy: The Imphal Free Press)
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