Tractor and the Truck 5 Star hospitality
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 05 2011 -

A tractor at work on the eastern side of Hotel Imphal

A picture tells a thousand stories, or so they say and seen within this parameter, we may say that the picture of a tractor clearing the grass on the eastern side of Hotel Imphal and a Tata truck precariously negotiating its way through a sunken portion of NH-39 tells a story that is both funny and tragic.

Sunken portion of NH-39 at Maram

Funny in the sense that while the tractor was engaged in clearing the grass against the backdrop of the Government's grand dream of coming up with a swanky 5 Star hotel, the Tata truck was negotiating through a treacherous terrain to bring in the essential commodities for the people.

The picture with the tractor tells the story of how committed the Government is about the 5 Star hotel while the Tata truck and the sunken portion of NH-39 tells the story of a Government which gives a damn about how the condition of the only lifeline of the State is maintained.

Come to think about it, the section of the society who are hit the hardest whenever communication snaps on the highway occupy the base line in the pecking order of the income ladder and no, this group of people have nothing to do with 5 Star hotels and its accompanying culture.

The contrast between the two pictures is chillingly bizarre and herein lies the tragic chapter of the story. To the moneyed and suited and booted class of politicians and those from the Babudom, a 5 Star hotel will sound fantastic.

Not only will it mean a place where one can immerse oneself in the luxurious ambience of a 5 Star hotel, but it also means employment opportunities for some educated, unemployed youths as well as earning opportunities for those who will issue the appointment order. Development comes with a price, of course and everyone knows this.

The Government owes the land we live on and call ours. Of course everyone knows this and this is why we pay land tax or house tax. It is something like a rent. This fundamental fact has come to mean that the Government can kick out anyone from anywhere, anytime, if and when their fancy strikes them.

This again is old hat, an old story. But mind you, the Government needs to come up with a good excuse before you are given the boot from your homestead. The excuse could be a road widening exercise, the setting up of an institution, whether educational institution or a Government office and of course there is always the term called compensation to make up for anything that may be remotely deemed as being too autocratic.

If compensation does not work then the Government can always take recourse to a step, which is absolutely legal and which may be tom-tommed as upholding the rule of law. The methodology is easy.

Crack the whip to get the Government agencies working and presto, the story of how certain people come to occupy certain plots of land or areas will be dug up and heaven help those who are found to have received the land allotment order by side stepping the legal process.

This is how the Vigilance Commission came up with its findings that a number of residents at Naga River Colony had settled there by getting the land allotment license through means which are not exactly legal. Good work and the speed in which the records were dug out and studied deserves the appreciation of everyone.

So here is the story of how the dream of a 5 Star hotel has infused a sense of duty in some Government departments. If this is not a welcome sign then what could be ? The commitment of the Government to a project which will give Imphal the sophisticated cut is again laudatory.

It however does not go jell with the picture of the Tata truck negotiating its way through the sunken portion of NH-39 and herein lies a tale. The sunken portion of the highway is the symbolic image of a people whose next meal stands to be rudely snatched from their plate while the tractor clearing the grass tells the story of the Government leaving no stones unturned to ensure that the moneyed class can relax in the ambience that only a 5 Star hotel can provide.

So while we have a Government which is leaving nothing to chance to go ahead with the 5 Star dream, it has not deemed it fit to have a look at the only lifeline of the people. This is not the script of a Hindi film high on melodrama but the reality.

Enough has been said about the absurdity of the 5 Star dream but then as they say this is a free country and anyone can dream. The only hitch is when leaders of the people start dreaming about some exotic sounding plans and schemes at the cost of the general well being of the common people.

Yes of course, there is the need to attract the tourists as Manipur has rich tourism potential. But a 5 Star hotel with a highway that is nothing better than a dirt track ?

A 5 Star hotel when uninterrupted power supply for over 6 hours in 24 hours is something of a luxury ? A 5 Star hotel when water supplied by the PHED is not fit for human consumption ?

Cervantes has earned a name for creating the character Don Quixote but we are yet to hear anyone entering the portals of history by being quixotic ! “Let them have cakes,” may be attributed to Marie Antoinette but here we have a dispensation which has gone better than this one and the message is, “If the lifeline supplying food grains is broken so what ? They can come to the 5 Star hotel.”

There is nothing funny about this. And the biggest tragedy of it all is the fact that it is the people who have been invited to the 5 Star hotel who voted these politicians to power.

Nothing less than a case of gifting a hungry, starving man bricks and iron to build a palatial building instead of rice and dal.