To begin with, kudos to the Directorate of Economics and Statistics of the Government of Manipur. Its effort of the last few years at recording the strikes and bandhs in Manipur has now paid-off by serving as a catalyst for serious debate on the issue of bandhs and general strikes.

Dr. D.S. Sharma, a renowned economist and commentator, has started the ball rolling with his intervention in The Sangai Express ('God Help Manipur from bandh, blockade and general strike', January 10 and 11).

Whereas I agree with Dr. Sharma with his categorization of bandh as a specie of collective action approaches, I would consider his overall definition as too contextual and limiting.

A more general definition of the concept would have definitely highlighted the weaknesses and flaws of the bandhs in the State he so wonderfully mentions in his piece. Well my intention here is not to enter into the definitional issues, but to highlight the dynamics and approaches to alleviate the problem.

Whereas the solutions put forward by Dr. Sharma are well-intentioned, I am afraid if it would involve a comparatively higher transaction cost – the cost of getting it done. Further, while he appreciates the costs, he seems to have missed an understanding of the evolutionary process of the bandhs in the State.

At This Point:

It is at this point that I would like to supplement the analysis of Dr. Sharma.

I would start with a quotation from his input: “In brief, all communities of Manipur had only limited opportunities for developing a broadly political understanding of the situation and 'street politics' remained largely a reflection of traditional sectarian loyalties and identities”.

Well this is the situation in the State after six decades of “democracy” and “planning”. In all these years, we have failed to give any indigenous flavour to either Ganatantra or Yojana (as a latest example we can take the Sarva Siksha Avigyan ­ I cannot even pronounce it right and am not sure if I am getting even the spelling right).

This implies that there have been two disconnects characterising the State in all these years,
(a) between Ganatantra and the people of the State; and
(b) Yojana and the people of the State.

Neither Ganatantra nor Yojana has reached the people, and the people have not been enabled to touch or be touched by the two processes.

In other words, after nearly six decades of “democracy” and “planning”, we have created a society of very limited access, where any attempt to have access to any benefit (normal benefit in the sense of reward for genuine effort) would be stunted by the rent-seekers and rent-grabbers consciously upholding and taking advantage of the limited access nature of the society.

We have to appreciate the emergence of bandhs and general strikes in Manipur within this context. The absolutely disgruntled lot having no access to the reward system of the society, after an enough period of waiting, have to strike back and have to strike back hard so that their voices get heard.

In this they have nothing to lose because the system as such has not made them participants and equal players. If they get any pay-off from the game it is absolute, or otherwise they incur no losses for they have nothing to lose.

On the other hand, the rent-seekers and rent-grabbers who are the people controlling the decision process of the state, despite their overt disapproval of the bandhs and general strikes, do not like any alteration or improvement in the system for that would only reduce their quantum of the rent.

The continuous replays of these exercises have prevented from emergence hierarchy and order – the fundamental elements for progress in any society - in the State. Or otherwise how does one explain the Govt inaction in the face of so many cries in the State.

Governance:

Well, I am talking of governance, and nature of the state in Manipur. What is the primary function of the State – to provide order.

What is the fundamental failure of the State in Manipur – to provide order (here I am not talking of the insurgency related law and order but with the routine character of governance and state functioning).

I have been repeatedly emphasising in many of my inputs in this daily that the state in Manipur has to perform, the various organs of the Government have to function.

The increasing trend of what I had called NGOisation of routine government functions has to discontinue and the state take over without further delay from the whatever level of dividend the non-state actors has generated. It is a sense of rule of law which needs to be immediately inculcated and institutionalised.

Cost of Governance:

It is from this angle that I have certain reservations on the proposal for a Community Relations Commission being suggested by Dr. Sharma. My feeling is that it is faulty on two co-unts.

First, it would add an additional cost to the cost of governance in the State.

Secondly, this would provide the rent-seekers and rent-grabbers a free hand and a freer atmosphere to continue with their game.

But at the end of the day, we may land ourselves at a more limited access than now, and then the situation would be much worse than the ones caused by and addressable by the general strikes and bandhs.

What I have basically tried to argue is that we have to have the various organs of the Government performing and the governance improved, or otherwise the unwanted bandhs would keep recurring for they involve no costs either to the proponents of the bandhs or to the rent-seekers at the helm of decision making in the State.

Only a kind of order in the society generated by an improvement in governance, wherein the poorest of the poor (in the Rawlsian sense) sees a silver lining in the horizon, can address the present issue of too frequent bandhs and blockades.

Starting from the lovely girl deflowered, killed and dumped at the Sanjenthong (I am talking of that daughter of a college professor), Lungnila and now the case of the girl killed at Nongmaiching and Senapati kidnaps, can anyone tell me if there is any recourse for the common man other than general strikes and bandhs.

These are absolute examples of governance failures – well governance failures even by the insurgent organisations.

Manipur is almost a no man's land now.

Only an improvement in governance can we think of addressing the causes of general strikes and bandhs.