New Government, New Hope
- Part 2 -

Pradip Phanjoubam *

CM Nongthongbam Biren inaugurated District Information Office at Kangpokpi on 26 April 2017 :: Pix - DIPR

Among these, the most importantly and threatening is the question of the state’s financial status. From a report released by the finance department last fortnight, it is clear it is not just corruption which is leaving the state’s exchequer with little to invest in building the future.

Whatever the compulsions, it is now clear the state has heaped upon itself recurring overhead commitments in the form of revenue expenditure that exceed the state’s revenue receipt. The most major component of this expenditure head is meeting government employees’ salaries commitments, and this nobody will dispute will have no easy way to size down.

Unless there are some very radical shifts in the structure of the state administration, it is unlikely even the most honest government will be able to cure the state of this malady easily. For this cure can come about only if there is a massive increase in the state’s revenue receipt by expanding its tax base exponentially, which obviously cannot happen overnight, or else by toning down the state’s non-plan spending, which again will be next to impossible considering the social turmoil it will cause.

Other than the state’s dismal financial situation, Chief Minister obviously will be soon faced with some of the most challenging situations the state has been always stymied by. Indeed, reflecting on them, it is difficult not to remember the eternal bard William Shakespeare’s remark in his play King Henry the Fourth-Part II, “Uneasy Lies the head the wears the crown”.

Obviously as with all leaders and especially one at the helm of an ethnically riven and troubled state like Manipur, Chief Minister N. Biren crown too will come with plenty to be uneasy about. But as a former footballer of national standing, therefore a team person, we have confidence he will be able to build a team strong enough to live up to these problems as they come along.

He will also probably have to be soon dealing with the question of a peace deal the Government of India is working to sign with the NSCN(IM) and its implications on Manipur.

During his recent and maiden trip to Ukhrul as Chief Minister, he was most warmly received by the public, quite unlike the reception his Congress predecessor Okram Ibobi did, but from the memorandums submitted to him by some of the most influential civil organisations based in the district, it is clear the issue of bifurcation of Naga areas of Manipur to integrate with a Greater Nagaland is still looming and can rear its head sooner than later.

Not only would this become a threat of violent civil unrest, of which Manipur is so accustomed by now, but it can also rock the BJP-led coalition, as one of the allies, the Naga Peoples’ Front, is a party openly committed to the formation of a Greater Nagaland. But as mentioned earlier, Chief Minister Biren is an experienced politician and a team man. He probably and hopefully will have the statesmanship and gift of persuasion to tide this problem as well.

It is however unfair to look at the prospects of problems ahead only even as a new government opens its innings. Chief Minister Biren is visibly brimming with energy and enthusiasm to make changes for the better. He has made “Go to the Hills” the motto of his government and has on numerous occasions pledged to bring about developmental parity between the hills and valley. We can only wish him success in this enterprise. For indeed there can be no doubt that this plague of hill-valley divide, material and mental, has been soul eroding.

The Chief Minister has, as mentioned earlier, also pledged to end the culture of official corruption. He has in this regard, set up an anticorruption cell headed by a junior government officer.

This probably is only the first step, and we are sure he will be taking the next step of setting up the Lokayukta in the days ahead, for only an institution autonomous of the government and answerable to some other pillar of Indian democracy, will be able to effectively check the corrupt ways of the government, especially when this is happening in the higher hierarchy of state power, including the ministerial level.

There can also be no gainsaying that the bigger swindling of public money happens at this level. Fortunately for the Chief Minister, the predecessor government had already passed the Bill for setting up this institution. He will therefore have to be just implement it.

But it is not just the Lokayukta which is pending. There are many more autonomous statutory watchdog institutions which are missing in the state. The State Human Rights Commission, which once existed but has been allowed to Lapse, for instance is one of these. The State Information Commission under the Right to Information Act,The Child Rights Commission, Women’s Commission, etc, must all be revived wherever they have been allowed to lapsed, or else re-empowered by giving them the teeth of true autonomy.

Democracy works best when there are checks and balances, and these autonomous institutions of democracy are precisely mandated to do this.

Last but not the least, as someone who has been in public life for several decades, both as a politician and before that as an editor of an influential newspaper, Chief Minister Biren would know better that there is no other mission historically more important and weighty than bringing about a resolution of the many insurrections in the state. Peace is also undoubtedly what the people of the state longs for the most. But this aspired peace is not a peace of the graveyard.

The insurrections too are within a cause effect matrix, and identifying these causes must begin in earnest so as to bring this tumultuous chapter of the region to a deserving denouement. These problems do not pertain to a law and order question only and so a military solution cannot be final. Instead their roots are in history and politics, and therefore any approach to a lasting settlement will have to first identify and then address the roots.

If Biren manages this, there can be no dispute that his name will be entered in the pages of the state’s and the region’s history in indelible letters of gold.