It is nearing a month since the elections to the Autonomous District Council, ADC, the local self governance bodies in the six ADC districts of the Manipur hills were held and nearly two weeks since the results were declared. Yet, there are no signs that the six councils will be formed immediately. It is true that the verdict was hung in some of the districts, but even in such a circumstance, it is unlikely the system will not have a way of resolving the situations. After all, hung verdicts of the electorate in a multi-party electoral democracy, is nothing to be surprised about. Moreover, in recent times, reflecting the multi fissured society that India is, this has become a routine experience. The question then is, why are the ADCs still not formed? The explanation given by the deputy chief minister, Gaikhangam yesterday to the media that this is on account of threats from underground militants is hardly convincing, though possible. It is not convincing because the government is supposed to have the power to overcome such pressures, and to say it does not would virtually amount to admission of governance failure. However, it is possible there are indeed such pressures from underground elements, for it is everybody`™s knowledge that they were involved in the election process all along, intimidating rival candidates to withdraw nomination, or else even physically assaulting them. If this was not so, it is absolutely unlikely that the ruling party Congress would not have fielded candidates in all the seats of the six ADCs, the previous avatars of which were the party`™s monopoly.
The inner frictions aside, what is also real is, the longer the formation of the ADCs are delayed, the more likely there would be the murky politics of horse-trading in which councillors are bought and sold by the parties in fray, just as it was the case in the state Assemblies and Parliament before the introduction of the Anti Defection Law. Let the government then assert its authority now, and have the matter resolved strictly abiding by the principles of democracy and fair play as it should be. Sadly, not many ordinary men and women are aware of the rules of conduct in the matter, but let the rules be applied and enforced now so that the ADCs can be formed.
This obscurity of what the rules of conduct are should bring up some more serious questions for the government to answer. Why is there such an obscurity in the first place? It is not just laymen, but even the state intelligentsia are in the dark as to what the exact rules are. Journalists who look for information on the matter too most often end up frustrated because the information are available in bits and pieces and spread over many different government departments. It is difficult not to believe this lack of official transparency is not motivated to protect vested interests. Only a few days ago, the government`™s Department of Information and Public Relations, DIPR, had made a bid to have all government advertisements routed through it. Why did it forget its primary job is not distribution of advertisements but of disseminating institutional information? If the department had been doing its duty as it should, why would there be such a knowledge vacuum on institutions like the ADCs. This did not have to be through advertisements, but also articles by its officers or else workshops for the media etc. Unlike the prospect of handling advertisements, nobody it seems is interested in handling these incentive-devoid responsibilities.
This lack of information is dangerous. For one, it would lead to uninformed guessworks and speculations by the public and indeed the media. It needs no elaboration what mischiefs, sometimes inadvertent and sometimes deliberate, can result from half truths of these speculations. Let the government immediately come out with a blueprint of the ADCs explaining its structure, functions, powers, limits, who administers the oath of office to councillors, impeachment and disqualification processes etc. If the people know or else can easily find out how the Indian Parliament and the state Assemblies work, why should the ADCs be allowed to remain under a cloud? And yes, let the councils be formed without further delay.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/06/adc-white-paper/
