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Eighth Assembly Election In Manipur Beyond The Decisive Verdict Of A Fragmented Kind
By A Bimol Akoijam and Oinam Bhagat
Far from the glare of the "national" media that covered the assembly elections of "national" importance in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Utaranchal, the tiny state of Manipur continued its tradition of liberal democratic politics as it had its 8th Assembly election as a part of
the Indian Republic this February. Irrespective of the "insignificance" that the mainstream consciousness imputes to the elections in Manipur, this election marks a new chapter in the political history of the state, particularly in its unique history of electoral politics.
It is an election that shows both a changing dynamics in the midst of a continuing electoral tradition of the state. It is perhaps for the first time that the state went to the poll amidst a specter of an unprecedented "ethnic divide" affecting major groupings of communities of the state, and a blurring divide between mainstream electoral politics and the "underground" politics. And the end result: a decisive verdict of a fragmented kind by the electorates as they voted out many of the discredited MLAs, including many heavy weights, of the last Assembly yet they had not given a mandate to a single party to form a government on its own.
If no other countries of the south have such a success story of liberal democratic polity as India does, Manipur which went to the poll along with three other states in February, narrates that story of how a western world-view and its practices transform the country that adopts the same, and in the process gets itself transformed. Just as liberal democracy expects people to choose and speak its mind through the ballots, people of Manipur were taught that expectation much ahead of other peoples in the Indian subcontinent as the state had the first election based on universal adult franchise to elect members of an Assembly in the Indian subcontinent way back in 1948 under the then constitution of the kingdom.
But perhaps, it is for the first time that people seemed to have shown that they have a voice and can exercise their right and will to decide who should be deciding their fate. But it also showed that political culture of Manipur is still marked by the importance of individuals over ideology and party politics. In this sense, one sees a change in the continuity of political culture of the state, and the fate of the people still remained precariously intertwined with that of these individual politicians as ever. It is imperative to look at the turn of events as Manipur moves on in the new millennium.
Political Instability: Coalition of Individuals or Parties?
It will not be an overstatement to acknowledge that political instability, both in terms of governance and the political life of the state in general, is a malaise that the people have learned to live with for many decades. A major factor of aggravating, if not the cause of, the overall instability in the state is the inability of the people to produce an effective and efficient political leadership on the one hand, and on the other, the lack of vision and
commitment on the part of the politicians of all hues to see beyond petty personal gains. Political culture of the state is by and large marked by shifting party loyalty over luncheon meetings of politicians and people treating elections as festivities rather than moments of exercising their will to decide the collective fate.
Also one should not ignore these traits. Involvement of Center in the fall of Nipamacha's MSCP government and formation of Samata government led by Radhabinod Koijam in mid-February 2001 is a case in point. The end result: In a span of three decades since Manipur became a full fledged state under Indian Union in 1972, as many as nine chief ministers with the change or guards on nineteen occasions, and President's rule on seven occasions. And people continuously sending back more or less the same politicians to the Assembly on many occasions.
For a change, people have thrown out forty-one MLAs from the last Assembly while sending twenty-one new faces in the February election for the 8th Assembly. Only eighteen MLAs from the last Assembly have made it to the 8th Assembly. It is a decisive verdict but a clear absence of a verdict in favor of a party, led to the formation of coalition government and the prospect of unstable governance looms large in the political horizon of the state. It is important to note that coalition politics is not a malaise in itself but the basis of the coalition is what makes political formation unstable in the state.
Political parties in Manipur are not by products of different ideological convictions but rather these groupings represent (vested) individual interests of the politicians. Mushrooming of parties does not indicate distinct ideological divide and different agendas in the state. To see this truth, one only has to reflect on the ways ("political") parties are formed, especially before the elections or after it by defecting from earlier parties. In fact, coalition in Manipur is not of political parties but that of individual politicians.
To the extend that ideologies as "world-views" shape the way people look at the world, including a good part of how one looks at oneself, absence of ideological base and commitment to specific political agendas is a tragedy. Given such a political culture, shifting of party does not create an "identity crisis" for the politicians. It is rather a vulgar display of greed and contempt for a collective political vision, if not a moronic display of its absence. In fact, consideration of petty personal gains is the only permanent feature that disguised as "development policies and programs" of the state. Although the ad hoc policies and agendas and a directionless in Manipur, it is time for the people of the state to go beyond the cynicism and "damned the politicians" attitude, and do some soul searching.
The first step has been taken in terms of speaking its voice through the recent election. However, temporary emotional outburst and discomforts with the existing state of affairs should crystallize into specific collective political visions and agendas. And political parties and individual politicians should be judged in terms of where they stand in such an ambience. It should not be difficult to see whether political parties are formed with distinct political ideologies, visions and agendas or merely guided by vested personal interests of the individual politicians. Next time around, one hopes to isolate politicians who stand beyond such a political culture and display his or her personal wealth or vested interests. This can be possible only when a politically conscious public, who do not treat elections as another festivity and get some "treat" from the candidates but who know and act that they can have a say in the democratic polity, start deciding their own collective fate respectively.
Politicized collective identities: Victims of divide and rule politics?
The people of the State are conventionally organized into two groupings - hill people (highlanders) and valley people (lowlanders). The former, in turn are conventionally organized into two broad groupings - the Naga tribes and the Kuki tribes. Officially there are 29 recognized scheduled tribes and most of them are Christians. The valley people (lowlanders) who form the nonscheduled tribe population of the State consist of the Meiteis (who forms the majority of the population - around 55% of the total population of the State) and Meitei Pangals (Manipuri Muslims). Majority of the Meitei population are Vaisnavaites (though it is a mixture of both the indigenous religion
(Sanamahism) only. Besides these "indigenous" populations, there are also people who come from other parts of the country like the Punjabis and Marawaris (locally these people are known as Mayangs), and the Nepalis.
In spite of these different religious or otherwise groupings, Manipur has been traditionally free from communal virus that affects the rest of the country. In fact, the first Chief Minister of the State, when it became a full-fledged state under the Indian Union, was a Muslim (a small minority). And the Tangkhuls (a scheduled tribe) have produced two chief ministers, one of whom (Rishang Keishing) is the longest serving CM of the state till date. However, 1990s saw a politics increasingly affected by politicized collective identities. There were clashes between the Meiteis and the Pangals in the valley and between the Nagas and the Kukis in the hills.
The emergence of "communal" politics is more visible in the hills than the valley. The claims and the counter claims of "Naga areas" and "Kuki areas", and clashes between the two groupings bring the "underground" politics as an active ingredient of the mainstream hill politics. In this sense, identity based politics occur in the hills much more than in the valley. This is all the more conspicuous since the infamous Kuki Naga clashes in the 90s. In the 7th Assembly election, the boycott call given by NSCN (IM) benefited some candidates put up by tribes which are not aligned to the Nagas.
The 8th Assembly elections were held at the backdrop of an increasing "communal" politics. The extension of ceasefire agreement between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India (GOI) to Manipur was seen by the valley people and sections of the hill people belonging to the Kuki conglomeration as a diabolical move to claim and consolidate parts of Manipur as parts of a diabolical move to claim and consolidate parts of Manipur as parts of a "greater Nagaland". Especially the valley people (the Meiteis and the Pangals) saw it as a move to disintegrate the State and started an agitation to "save territorial integrity" of Manipur.
Ultimately, the GOI had to roll back the agreement and the ceasefire agreement between NSCN (IM) and the GOI was confined to the state of Nagaland only. Although in spite of provocations, there were no Godhra and its aftermaths like incidences in Manipur at the height of the crisis arising out of the extension of ceasefire to Manipur. However, this crisis mark an emergence of another divide based on politicized collective identities between the Nagas and the valley people, especially the Meiteis. Thus palpable "ethnic tension" based on politicized collective identities between the Nagas and the Kukis on the one hand and the Nagas and the Meiteis on the other, the election for the 8th Assembly were held under unprecedented "ethnic divide" among different communities of the State. The reported involvement of "underground elements" in forcing candidates to withdraw from contesting the election in the hills should not come as a surprise. For in such a situation, further blurring of distinction between the "underground" politics and the mainstream politics was quite an expected aspect.
In a sense, this election marks a heightened process of making
traditional groupings into rigid identities that are crafted to engage in a zero sum contest in a politically surcharged environment. As the political culture of Manipur increasingly resemble the communalized politics as in the rest of the country, in the days to come whether the people can resist the same by isolating people who are bend upon disturbing the age-old tradition of communal harmony in the state for their narrowed vested ends is yet to be seen.
****Both the authors are associated with the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, as Associate Fellow and visiting Associate Fellow
respectively****
(Courtesy: The Imphal Free Press)
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