We recently had in Imphal a conference attended by a cross-section of people – ex-ambassador, journalists, academics, activists, women protagonists and current legislators from across the country deliberating on Lived Democracy. Well, it is not what was deliberated that I wish to elaborate, but what a nationally respected friend asked me after the conference.

Asked What: She first appreciated the articulative capabilities of Manipuris, the rich cultural heritage and the presence of renowned personalities in different fields in Manipur. But this was followed by a sting. Amar despite all these, why do you not able to at least keep your city clean? Well I felt completely ashamed and was fully blushed. But I had no response.

It has not been just six months, one year or two years that Imphal city has been so dirty, but it has been almost a decade or so that it has been a garbage centre. Imphal, as I have been repeatedly emphasizing, is an historical, political, cultural and economic capital of the country. We have the seats of power in this very city. We have more than one authority to look after the city. But the garbage and dirt characteristics of the city only show signs of deterioration over the years.

I know the administration of the State would like that the people, in response to the question asked of me, should rise to the occasion and clean the city. I would hasten to add that such an expectation is plain stupid and nonsense. The private initiatives can work for a few days, but cannot be a sustainable frame given the present structure of the city. The initiative, execution and evolution of a sustainable framework have necessarily to come from the State administration possessing multiple authorities for the city.

We have been told of privatization efforts of the cleaning campaign. But I cannot help feeling that what require privatization are not the activities, but the government itself. What needs abolition is the administration, not the organizations. I have another experience connecting to the recent conference. We had booked Hotel Imphal well in advance for the conference, but when the delegates were almost arriving we found the hotel rooms full of cobwebs and dirt. We had to change the venue of the conference at the shortest notice, and thereby putting the conference budget to haywire. The administration cannot even maintain a hotel the demands of whose services are on the rise. So naturally we have to demand that the requirement for privatization lies with the administration itself, not with the organs and organizations.

Bangkok and New York: It is this administration with such wonderful incapability precedents that would now be showcasing Manipur to the world right from Asia to the Americas. This showcasing business has many precedents as well of the unsuccessful kind. This time we simply would not like to be ashamed any further.

Here we need to be reminded of some minimum basic current international ethos in so far as governance is concerned. The investors, institutional as well as private, around the world are looking for accountability and responsiveness of the administration. It is not enough for the administration to just shout from the roof-top that it is a responsible government. The government’s promise to look after its own responsibilities alone would just not do; it has to prove its own responsive character to the issues.

Accountability is another area which the international investors look forward to any administration. But it is exactly one area in which the State administration would and had always looked to the other way. There has so far been no instance when the State administration could say that it was acting on accountability.

Prove Yourself: Well, the forthcoming Bangkok and New York events are opportunities which the people of the State would not like to be finished at the level of some in the administration enjoying the opportunity to travel. These are opportunities for the people which the administration should be able to be made so.

The people of the State do anxiously look forward how the leaders of the administration present the attractive side of the State for some investors to feel like coming. Well again, it is just the beginning, and the follow-up would be a million-dollar question involving the fate of the people. In the long run, it is the fate of the people which matters, not the privileges of few.