Third option to integrity and integration
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 05 , 2014 -

Two Parliamentary seats. One lies entirely in the valley and the other in the hills plus seven Assembly segments of Thoubal district.

Two towering election slogans this time are ‘protection of territorial integrity’ and ‘solution to the Indo-Naga political dialogue’ which to many observers means integration of Naga inhabited areas under one administrative roof.

The two overarching slogans run contradictory to each other.

Yet it is interesting to note that certain political parties/candidates have been articulating or rather trying to articulate both the slogans simultaneously and present them as a single package with an obvious intention to win votes of the vertically divided ideologues based on the composition of their audience.

This is nothing but exposure of their Machiavellian outlook of seeing public as fools, emotional, lacking power of perception and understanding, forgetful in nature etc.

As pointed out in the last editorial, it was not political parties or politicians who vouched Manipur’s territorial integrity against threats which came in different forms and shapes rather it was the common people led by some civil society organisations.

In the same vein, Naga solution or Naga integration cannot be won by any political party or candidate until and unless there is a consensus among the Naga people.

Nonetheless, almost all the major contenders, capitalising on the sentimentality of the two issues, have been using the two phrases as catchwords of their election campaigns.

How committed are they to the causes they espouse is dubious given the long history of politicians joining one political party after another only to jump back to his/her parent party after a few years.

A few candidates who contested the last parliamentary election on the plank of Naga solution have this time chosen common issues like Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Inner Line Permit System etc.

NPF and Congress often projected as main contenders in Outer Manipur P/C, have clear agenda though contradictory. NPF is very clear in articulating their election agenda of Naga solution whereas Congress is rooted to maintain the status quo.

But many other candidates, particularly those belonging to Naga tribes are apparently caught in a dilemma. The dilemma of choosing one of the two contradictory yet popular election slogans.

Whereas they are not successful enough to articulate the two slogans and present them as compatible by any degree, they are reluctant to choose any one of the two for fear of alienating one group of voters.

It would be hard, if not impossible, to articulate the election slogans of ‘integrity’ and ‘integration’ and present them as compatible. Our view is, one can drop both the slogans.

These two issues cannot be necessarily the only vote winners. This can be gleaned from the fact that many candidates who contested the preceding elections, both Assembly and Parliamentary, on the plank of either ‘integrity’ or ‘integration’ bit the dust. There are many more important issues, common to the assumed hill-valley dichotomy.

AFSPA, fake encounters, displacement, human rights violation, crime against women, child trafficking, existing armed conflicts, abnormally high prices of essential commodities, lack of drinking water, electricity, sub-standard transport infrastructure, all-pervading practice of corruption, unemployment, misplaced development programmes are issues common to all the people of the State regardless of whether one lives in the hill or valley.

If one party is fighting for integration, other parties need not necessarily fight for integrity alone, they may take up all these common issues as their election agenda.

Still they enjoy the advantage of advocating the twin agenda of integrity and developmental and human right issues.

Or they may drop the agenda of integrity if they think it is tricky from the election point of view.

One or two MP(s) cannot make or unmake Manipur.