Manipur : Economic doldrum and political melodrama
- Part 1 -

T Haokip *

An empty road during a bandh in the heart of Imphal City in April 2012 :: Pix - Bunti Phurailatpam

A nation or a community is known by the character of its people. Manipur a tiny state in India, but has acquired a name for itself in some distinguished field of human activities. We draw appreciation and recognition of the world in the field of classical dance, music, cinema, sports and human right activity. Take a look at the street where we see fashionable people driving latest automobile Sedan and SUV cars. Fast food, Cafes, ATM booths, beauty parlours and Malls are coming up where youngsters hunting for the latest branded items loiter around with mobile phones in hand sipping Cola, coffee or tea. Fun and frolic on the street, festivities, musical nites, and beauty contest goes on nights without end. But are we rich and really happy is the Big Question ? It is all a matter of perception. How other people think of us and how we perceived ourselves.

What is the other side of the picture ? Sporadic Bandhs, strikes and people taking to the street in protest against alleged fake encounter, extra judicial killing or atrocities by the uniformed personals are daily happenings. Reports of kidnapping, extortion, killing by unidentified persons where even uniform persons were involved are materials for the media. Increasing incidences of rape and murder of women and even minor girls hitherto un-heard of and domestic violence is rampant.

Economic blockade and bandhs called by different organizations to press demand for separate state or alternative arrangement leads to loss of many precious man hours. People making serpentine Qs for items like LPG, Petrol, Deisel and other essential items of daily necessity are common scenes on the street whereas many localities even in the heart of the capital still suffer from poor electric connectivity and chronic water supply problem. Narrow road full of pot holes crammed by indiscipline traffic culture and mad rush of vehicles trying to navigate not negotiate through stagnant water pools, is the picture of our street. The road is virtually owned by VVIPs and uniform personals who looks at others with contempt.

What is the psyche of the people ? "Outward Show" would be the appropriate term. This is true of the Meiteis or the tribals of the hills and now even the Muslim community. We Manipuris are fast in copying and adopting the latest trend of fashion and lifestyle of Hollywood and Bollywood. Families of Ministers, bureaucrats and contractors sport in luxurious lifestyle to the envy of the neighbours. Success in politics, civil or police service and contract business brings miraculous change overnight.

Sprawling mansions and palatial buildings shoot up amidst the slums buzzing with beehive lines of cars and security guards. Common people invade homes of Ministers and bureaucrats ready to pay for any favour or facilities and the highest bidder gets the prize. Hence the vicious cycle of corruption takes birth. The tentacles of corruption binds everyone in all walks of life and the people are trap within this vicious cycle with no escape route. Corruption is a way of life and we cannot change it because we all accept it.

An allusion to ancient Egyptian Mythology, there is a bird called Phoenix with splendid colours. Whenever it is destroyed it is reborn from its own ashes. The same is true of corruption in Manipur. In Greek Mythology, Hydra, a serpent like creature that dwells in the lake Lerna had numerous heads. Each time one is cut off, two grow back. Similar is the case of corruption in Manipur. Try to eradicate corruption in one area it will multiply in other areas. There is a also a reference to a character – Medousa in the Greek Mythology, which is a three headed creature and if any man tries to fight and look at the face he will turn to stone. The same is true of corruption in Manipur. Individuals and Organization such as social activist group, student bodies JAC etc. have tried to fight corruption but have fallen short of their objectives and have simply melt away or vanish in thin air.

ECONOMIC DOLDRUM :-

Certainly Manipur has no mineral resources of its own worth the name. The only natural resource is of the forest and that has been totally exploited. Unlike Assam and Meghalaya which has abundant supply of Coal, Oil, Limestone and rich forest products which are input materials for Oil Refinery, Cement factory, Paper Mill and Plywood factory, Manipur has none of these raw materials to generate its own revenue. Therefore, the money that comes to the state is obviously from the tax payers of the Central heartland.

What resources and industry has Manipur ? Poverty and unemployment are the two main resources of Manipur and the only viable industry is Insurgency. Poverty and unemployment generates hunger and frustration. Corruption in the system of governance provides the necessary fuel for generation of industry call – Insurgency. The pyramid structure of hierarchical power in the state is that the political bosses are on the top followed by the bureaucrats and then the contractors. In good old times money coming from the centre used to be siphoned off by the three constitutional state actors and the remaining paltry sum distributed amongst the public. But since the rise of Insurgency a new power equation came into play which marks the beginning of a new era. The very people who revolt against the established corrupt system and professed to be the guardian of justice have merged with the existing system.

The promise of every successive government to remove hunger and poverty from every home has turn out to be only a mirage. The anti-poverty programme, the promise of free medication, free education and to wipe away the tears from the eyes of every child is still a distant dream. The inability of the successive government ministries and departments to reach out to the unreached basically due to bureaucratic inefficiency and ineptness and political interference at different levels are largely responsible for the failure in the whole delivery system.

The huge budgetary allocations, government grants and aided schemes channelized through government departments and the NGOs have been grossly misused. With the increasing motive for personal benefit, the process of commercialization of social institutions, the increasing lure for materialistic gain, many NGOs and bureaucrats have abused the public delivery system as a medium of diverting public money for personal gain in the guise of charity and social service. For this reason people are losing faith in these institutions. Since the performance of the government on the whole is not open, transparent and accountable the general public has developed a sense of trust deficit in the whole system of governance.

The state often suffers from two categories of disasters – one is the natural disaster like landslide and flood but the more frequent one is the man-made disaster i.e. the strike, bandh and economic blockade. The state reeled under the impact of the severest of such disasters mentioned above but miraculously over the years Manipur has learned to face such trauma and tragedy with patience and perseverance.

The 92 days bandh and economic blockade called by supporters of Sadar Hills District Demand Committee was the severest and longest in the recorded history of bandh and blockade in Manipur.

But despite repeatedly facing such disaster the Manipur government has not made any appreciable effort to tackle such foreseeable events. The two NH - No.02 and 37 remain virtually neglected leaving the state to the mercy of natural disaster. The Nagas and Kukis of Manipur taking advantage of their geographical location put the state to ransom at will by imposing economic blockade. The state has not conceived any idea so far to counter such perceptible threat. No alternative road or highway has been proposed or taken up seriously. As a result businessmen create artificial scarcity of essential commodities at given opportunity. The people of Manipur will have to endure the pain and trauma of these perennial problems as there is no panacea for such irremediable ills.

In order to run their organization, Insurgents are running a parallel government and have devised ingénues system and mechanism of levying taxes at source. The government alleged that Mega projects down to the smallest work order allotted to contractors the Insurgents have a share in percentage. Certain percentage is cut at source from the salary of all government employees in the state with the exception of very few. The new NREG Scheme is an added bonus to the Insurgent Organizations as crores of rupees flow into their coffer by way of percentage cut. As a result new chiefs and villages have sprung up especially amongst the Kukis by creation of new villages with fake household members who are non-existent.

The state administration on the other hand plays the blame game in order to justify their action or inaction. In the first place the Centre is often blamed for insufficient allocation of fund, step motherly treatment and all the ills and problems the state is experiencing through. Secondly, the insurgents are made a convenient scapegoat for any failure or lapses. The government alleges that mega projects such as building of Dams, hydro-projects, irrigation cannels, sewage plants, schools, hospitals, sports complexes, super markets, and endless lists of other projects comes under the domain of insurgent organizations of both the hills and the plain.

In the name of security threat from insurgents massive fortresses are built around all the residence of the Ministers and MLAs in the heart of the city, to provide round the clock security to these honourable representatives of the people. Makeshift attack on these fortresses is sometimes carried out to prove that the resident Ministers are under threat from the insurgents. To guard these castles and to provide escort to these VVIPs thousands of police force including the VDF have been recruited over the years. Crores of rupees have been amassed from such recruitment which filled the coffers of the police organization and the Ministers.

The same method is applied in all other departments and perhaps the biggest of all is in the State education department including the District Council schools in the hill districts. For recruitment of teachers who never teach crores of rupees are amassed by the Minister and officials concern over a period of time. The government has set up new schools half of which are non-existent, and the other half with haphazard building and no student. It is impossible to even visualized how many crores of rupees are spent to run such ghost schools, salary paid to school less teachers, midday meal for children who never attend school. Massive expenditure have been incurred on equipments, computers, assasories, up-gradation schemes and repairing and renovation of school buildings which does not even exist. The state of affairs is simply terrifying but who dares to raise the issue.

To be continued...