CYNICALLY YOURS: The outgoing government evoked only anger and
indignation but people voted fot the Congress agains as there was no
other choice. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
The Congress' landslide victory of 42 seats in the house
of 60 in Manipur was a foregone conclusion although many still think it
was a surprise. Most post poll surveys predicted a hung house with the
ruling Congress emerging the single largest party. The cynicism in the
State being what it is, nobody thought a clear mandate was a
possibility. But there is another way of looking at the Congress
landslide. It still is an expression of cynicism in the sense that the
voters stopped expecting a change for the better but were desperate to
have things not slip any further.
The issues
The
outgoing Congress-headed government, as many noted, inspired only anger
and indignation. There would not be one in the State who has not
complained in exasperation about the rampant official corruption, or not
thrown up his arms in helpless bewilderment at having to do with two
hours of electricity a day, or not cursed the government for the water
taps that have run dry, or for the crumbling roads everywhere. There
would, likewise, be a few who have not shown a clenched fist at the
government for the continued imposition of the draconian Armed Forces
Special Powers Act, AFSPA, for the repeal of which Irom Sharmila has
been on an epic hunger strike for nearly 12 years now. Further, abject
lack of governance has allowed the law and order to slip away almost
completely. The periodic prolonged blockades on the State's lifelines
with the government looking the other way even as prices of essential
commodities rise to the sky, meant untold misery, uncertainty and
insecurity for the common man. Yet, Manipur came out and voted
resoundingly to bring back the government it hated.
The
explanation is, the Manipur results were not so much about the Congress
winning. It was more about non-Congress parties losing. In a
hypothetical situation, had the people been given another choice of,
say, a spell of President's Rule, the landslide verdict of Manipur
voters would probably have gone in favour of the latter.
During
the last Congress tenure in power with Chief Minister Okram Ibobi at
the helm, almost all other political parties in the State were, either
voluntarily or else by compulsion, on a path of self destruction. On
most of the issues these parties were deafeningly silent. Many of their
legislators hung around and nagged ministers for favours. In the run-up
to the election, many of them queued up for Congress tickets. In
summary, they reduced themselves to subservient allies of the ruling
party. At least one party, the Communist Party of India (CPI) remained a
formal partner in the State government, even after the party broke
alliance with the Congress at the Centre. The opposition space in the
Assembly was thus abdicated. This is the vacuum just right for a shrill
and pushy party with a charismatic leader like the Trinamool Congress to
enter. The party fielded 47 candidates and won seven, commendable for a
newcomer. Had it entered the stage earlier, it probably would have done
much better. All other parties, depleted in morale and commitment,
ended up unable to set up candidates in even half the Assembly
constituencies. Many including the CPI and Manipur People's Party (MPP)
drew a blank.
Desperately trying to remain relevant,
four of these parties urgently formed a pre-poll alliance, the People's
Democratic Front (PDF) but this proved too little too late, despite the
alliance attracting seven more parties at a later stage. The PDF
partners also probably did not consider the thought that the
Anti-Defection Law had lowered the ceiling on cabinet size — 12
including the Chief Minister in the case of Manipur, and therefore a
coalition of more than two parties is likely to become strained as the
only proven incentive of such coalitions is ministerial berths. The PDF
hence did not present a picture of stability capable of instilling
confidence to the badly fractured and shaken electorate of Manipur. The
ruling Congress on the other hand was strong, resourceful, and because
of its strength, able to posture as a non-partisan party, reaching out
to the valley as well as the hills, and to all ethnic groups, setting up
candidates in all the 60 constituencies, campaigning with the
confidence of winners. It won seats from among all communities and
regions too.
Those who concluded the Congress was not
loved in Manipur in predictions before the results were probably
correct. What they did not see was the second factor that this was the
only party left seen as capable of providing the sinews to hold the
badly divided state together. The party's victory was preordained, not
by its virtues but by the absence of a credible adversary. Manipur's
choice of the Congress was because it had no other choice.
(Pradip Phanjoubam is a senior journalist based in Manipur. Email: phanjoubam@gmail.com)
0 comments:
Post a Comment