'Theatrics of Democracy' and alienation

K Naresh Sharma *

Manipur has become the theatre of challenging every universally accepted norm that had been agreed upon by people in their effort to exist as a collective entity generally referred to as 'society.' This includes pertinent questions on even institutions that are put into place for that collective existence. Following the series of events that have tarnished the idea of democracy, the April 15 incident when an aged pensioner lost her life at 1st MR Ground while waiting for pension and subsequent events have added a new chapter to the already bruised experience of the State.

The idea that reduces aged people into sets of animals that can be moved around by handing out State sponsored charity is condemnable. However, to maintain complete silence on the issue is even worse. It is unimaginable to think how a supposedly civilised society reacts to horrific death of the old woman. The news widely covered by the local media did not even evoke any sense of outrage from the people.

On the contrary, people of Manipur are well known for expressing outrage at the slightest provocation by any action that hurts their collective conscience. The death of the old woman did not at all hurt our collective conscience. The lives of lesser mortals have no value in our society. Or is it that the woman did not fit into the political framings of the politically conscious organisations?

It is generally assumed that whenever a precious life is lost in abnormal circumstances, the Government will swing into action and will hold someone accountable 'according to procedures established by the law'. In the above mentioned case, instead of resorting to procedures established by the law, the Government maintained complete silence and did not even bother to express regret for its mistakes.

The Government had instead engaged in theatrics of going to different homes to distribute the pension by the permanent public servants. How does one understand the acts of public servants of Manipur – both political and permanent?

For the mainstream political class, it is all about electoral politics and its outcome. To avert any damage to the political outcome, the best option is to remain silent and continue with the process of distributing the money thereby wiping away the crime from the memory of the population.

The political class and elites seem to think that people are poor and what they are concerned with is not the 'value' but the 'money' and by continuing with the theatrics of distributing the pension, the public servants will be transformed into 'benevolent masters.' This is the rationale behind the silence.

The assumption is true if the election pattern and mode of voting in Manipur is taken into account. Here, voting is not based on values or the idea on which a particular political party or individual stands. Rather, it has been all about how much a person has find access to those rulers of the day. This understanding is given legitimacy by the dominant idea floating around amongst those who are engage actively in electoral politics - elites and upper middle classes that Government is the benevolent master and it is at the whims of the Government when the services are delivered to the tax payers. Such thinking is akin to the practice of the early periods when the king was the sovereign and all the rest – subjects.

What is missed out in the current theatrics is the fact that people are the ones who give 'salary' to the public servants for performing their functions. Arrogance of the public servants can be gauged by the fact that not even a department inquiry has been constituted to look into the incident. In the same breath, responses of the organisations that operate in the sphere of civil society are even more wanting.

Active civil society organisations are necessary to add rigour to flourishing democracy but in this case, the inaction on the part of civil society organisations, except some "noise here and there", has forced one to wonder whether the death of a poor old woman did not fit into the schemes of 'projectized' framing of politics.

Important actions and elements required for running a successful democracy have failed the people of Manipur. It has instead, alienated the people like me in a democracy. Feeling of anguish; alienation and outrage may not be heard anymore and had been successfully curtailed by the theatrics of public service and elements operating in civil society in Manipur. The truth remains - that the blood of lesser mortal continues to boil.