By Amar Yumnam Manipur is an interesting place from the political economy angle. This `interesting` case is exactly like a doctor would speak of a serious patient suffering from dangerous
By Amar Yumnam
Manipur is an interesting place from the political economy angle. This `interesting` case is exactly like a doctor would speak of a serious patient suffering from dangerous ailments. In the case of the patient the doctor, the relatives and the family do struggle hard to restore the health of the patient to normalcy. But in an absolute contrast, in the case of the land and society of Manipur, those who should be playing the roles of the doctor, the family and the relatives play games (social and political) to exploit the condition of sickness in an absolutely non-sharing way `“ the disease condition invariably worsens.
Let us look at the delivery of the core functions of the state in areas like infrastructure, service and security. In any of these functions of the state, the private housing and private care of the household of the official responsible for any kind of delivery would be much better off and much superior to created or creating infrastructure, service and security. This is true and has been true in the governance characteristics in both the mountains and the valley of Manipur. This has been happening despite the cries and counter-cries relating to the mountain-valley divide. In fact, it is as if the cries and counter-cries create a facilitating milieu for the continuance of the fragility in delivery of infrastructures, service and security. Both the politicians and the individuals in the government have been and are thriving in the midst of these cries. There has never been any attempt to meaningfully address this fragility.
Recently some news item came up in connection with the autonomy status of some parts of the mountain areas consequent upon dialogues between the Union Government and one non-state agency. It has caused a mild, unlike widespread ones in earlier cases, socio-political flutter in the valley. This has been a recurring phenomenon in Manipur, and any responsive and responsible provincial government should have put in place policies and programmes in order to address the cause of the socio-political flutter. The government, in the sense of the individuals in the government, have thrived in the atmosphere of recurrent social flutter on issues unrelated to the core aspects of development `“ development dismissed.
The fragility particularly in the mountain areas of Manipur has been a long run feature. But there are no tangible signs of the provincial government putting in place policies to reduce, if not eliminate, the fragility relating to the core functions of infrastructures, service and security. This has been the same for the last seven decades. There is not even minimal transparency. While there has been serious tussle about the credibility of census figures in the mountain areas, there has not been any attempt to collect and disseminate aggregate data relating to the mountain areas. This absence of the minimum effort for transparency could be explained only by what I had said in the beginning: the private housing and household of the official responsible for any kind of delivery in the core functions of the state (infrastructure, service and security) would be much better off and much superior to created or creating infrastructure, service and security; the absence of transparency facilitates the non-performance of the governance for personal aggrandisement.
Instead we find the governance fully involved in creating atmosphere for the people to fully submerge in issues absolutely non-contemporaneous. While the traditional social institutions (like the Umang Lai committees) have been functioning and while there could be good reasons for bringing them under regulation, the need for creating mild social turmoil by the regulation being put in place is hard to digest. The method of the regulation itself is faulty, and the logic can only be explained by an urge to divert the attention of the people from the failure of the state in attending to the core functions of governance and personally thrive in the resultant environment.
Two greatest impacts of the globalisation have been the blurring of the correspondence between state and society, and also the blurring of the partition between movement and territory. With the expanding flows of people, culture, knowledge and ideas along with commodities, the traditional synchronisation of state with a particular society is fast disappearing. The newly emerging societies are marked by heterogeneity and divergence though driven by shared objectives of welfare. Further, border is now conceived in terms of networks instead of fixed boundaries; flows are now emphasised instead of fixity. But what we experience in both the mountains and the valley of Manipur today are group activities quite un-attuned to the emerging global scenario. Well, even here, let us interpret these in terms of the economics of nationalism as the commitment of the people to the land and the society of Manipur. This is a very powerful tool to cause development. If the provincial government could mobilise this nationalism, it would be an altogether development scenario in Manipur. But what we encounter rather is the indulgence of the administration in wasting the energy of the people in issues of divide and related articulations instead of harnessing the collective strength; there is urgency and necessity to focus the attention of the government (read the individuals manning the government) on positive dimensions of transformation and mobilisations for these.
However, whether prepared or ill-prepared we are socially and administratively, globalisation is now being strongly pushed in this part of the world as well under a new dispensation from the Union Government. In the prevailing and emerging scenario, the responsibility, coherence and responsiveness of the government at the provincial level are critical. We need and want the Government of Manipur to deliver inter alia at least in the
A. Core functions of state in infrastructure, security and service;
B. Address the deepening and increasingly politicising inter-ethnic polarisation; and
C. Become alive to the emerging relationship between South East Asia and India particularly under the new dispensation under PM Modi and endeavour to address the imperatives of Manipur in the changing scenario.
But I cannot help increasingly feeling if we are committing a sin in expecting anything from a government which CANNOT EVEN OPEN A PASSPORT OFFICE.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/10/mountain-and-valley-divide-in-manipur-and-what-not-the-politicians-want-it-the-government-cares-a-hoot-and-the-irrelevant-seeks-relevance-there/
