President’s Rule: An Opportunity to Clean up the Mess in Man
President’s Rule: An Opportunity to Clean up the Mess in Manipur
Kakistocracy has to be understood in the context of Manipur where a MLA only from the dominant community i.e. the Meitei community can become the Chief Minister
Kakistocracy is a government run by the worst, least
qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. The episode unfolding in Manipur is
beginning to look like a kakistocracy; a state where the least suitable or
least competent citizens of a state have been elected to become MLAs to run a
government. The inability to find a suitable replacement for the post of Chief
Minister after 20 months of leadership crisis seems to point to the fact that
democracy has failed in Manipur as elections are won by means other than
intellectual prowess. Let this be a lesson to the electorate to elect
competent, well-bred and educated persons in future without falling prey to
money and muscle power.
Kakistocracy has to be understood in the context of Manipur
where a MLA only from the dominant community i.e. the Meitei community can
become the Chief Minister. This post is not available to the 20 tribals MLAs of
Manipur since the dominant society decided in the late 1990’s that only a
Meitei should be allowed to occupy the CM chair. Realistically speaking, the
crèche of MLAs from where the CM material can be chosen is confined to 40 MLAs
from the Imphal valley out of a total of 60 MLAs. Even out of 40 MLAs, the MLAs
belonging to the Muslim community and the opposition party is excluded from the
group of eligible persons for CM post. This is unfair and unjust especially
when the dominant community wants all communities to live in a single state.
Instead, they should be open minded to share leadership role with any competent
persons outside the Meitei community if they want the state to remain united as
a single entity and also avoid a state of kakistocracy.
Against such exclusivist tendency of the dominant community
of Manipur, who cannot fathom sharing power and funds with other communities of
the state, it is not surprising that the helpless and discontented tribal
communities, both Nagas and the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar tribes, have been seeking a more
empowered local self government arrangement since the 1970’s before Manipur
became a full fledged State in 1972 to be masters of their own affairs. This
demand has always been opposed and the state continues to exist as a single
entity devoid of any emotional bonding which is tearing the state apart under
the ongoing ethnic conflict. However, as demographic changes become inevitable,
there may be a time when it may become more advantageous to the Meiteis to
allow the tribes to have their own political entity in order to retain power
and remain masters of their own destiny. The question that arises now is
whether the opportune time has arrived for Meiteis to look for leadership
outside their own community for the sake of having an inclusive state
government? The time has perhaps arrived for inclusive thinking, inclusive
administration and inclusive development to save the state.
The tribes got the autonomous district council in the “Hill
Areas” of Manipur in 1971 which was buttressed by Article 371-C providing for a
“Hill Areas Committee” (HAC) in the Manipur State Assembly and the Presidential
Order dated 20th June 1972 specifying the scope, procedures, powers and
functions of the HAC during the period of transition of Manipur from a ‘Part C’
state to a full fledged state in 1971-72. However, with the passage of time it
is becoming clearer to the tribes that the dominant community will always
obstruct the functioning of autonomous district council (ADCs) and HAC in order
to keep the tribes suppressed which is becoming difficult to tolerate in a
transparent and internet connected world when the Naga and Kuki-Zomi-Hmar
brethren of Manipur can witness the prosperity of their brethren in Nagaland
and Mizoram while they remain backward in Manipur. This wrong needs to be
corrected and a new path of inclusive governance charted under PR.
The current discontentment and distrust of the tribes
towards the state government dominated by Meiteis was compounded further by the
demand of dominant and advanced Meitei community for Scheduled Tribes (ST)
status ostensibly for government jobs but with a hidden agenda to grab tribal
lands from the “Hill Areas” of Manipur. The manner in which the petitioners for
ST status demand for Meitei community were able to secure a favourable order
from the Manipur High Court without the government counsels (both State and
Centre) objecting or asking for time and obtaining an Oral Order on the day of
motion i.e. 27th of March 2023 by consent of all parties in the petition, but
the Order becoming public knowledge only on 19th of April 2023 when it was
uploaded in the High Court website, has not instilled any confidence in the
minds of the tribes that the State government has been impartial in court and
will be impartial in future. The court’s order added to the frustration of the
tribal youth and coupled with provocative reactions of the dominant community
to the Solidarity March of the tribal students and the incompetent handling of
the volatile situation by the district administrations and state government,
the clashes became an ethnic conflict between the Meitei community and Kuki-Zomi-Hmar
tribes. The degree of distrust is at its zenith and needs to be addressed and
remedied.
Under such circumstances, the Central government must
understand the dis-connect, frustration and deep concern of the tribes to
continue to be part of Manipur which offers them no prospect of holding the
post of CM, no empowered local self government on the lines of the Bodoland
Territorial Council while the Imphal valley enjoy guarantees under Article 243
to Article 243 O, no guarantee of state government being impartial, no
safeguards for fair and just consideration on the ST demand of Meitei community
which threatens alienation of tribal lands in the “Hill Areas”, no guarantee
that the HAC would be allowed to function properly as envisaged under Article
371-C and the Presidential Order dated 20th June 1972, and no guarantee that
administration and development in Manipur will be inclusive for all citizens
alike.
President’s rule is an opportunity to set right all the
things that currently ails Manipur. These include recovery of looted police
guns and ammunitions, restoring rule of law by reigning in non-state actors
engaged in extortions and obstructing law enforcement authorities, inclusive
and non-communal approach in postings of government functionaries, equitable
distribution of development funds to Hill Areas based on backwardness and
vastness of area criteria, equitable distribution of major government
infrastructure and institutions for Hill Areas and Imphal valley, and fixing
accountability on government functionaries for delinquency in discharging their
functions properly so that the mayhem that took place on 3rd of May 2023 and
its aftermath does not repeat again. Foremost, PR provides the best opportunity
to bring about political settlements to end the current ethnic conflict and
mete out similar and equitable treatment to the demands of Naga tribes too and
this opportunity should be capitalised by the Central leadership while the
situation is ripe for lasting political settlement.
