For whom the polls toll : Yehi Hai Right Choice ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 16 2011 -

If it goes as scheduled then Manipur will vote for the 10th Assembly in less than 6 months or in less than 180 days and time alone will tell whether the more than 45 days of economic blockade will reflect on the outcome of the election or not.

As things stand today, subtle and not so subtle election campaigning is already underway in quite a number of Assembly Constituencies and this seems to blend perfectly well with the serpentine queue that has become a regular feature outside petrol pumps, the escalating prices of essential commodities where potatoes are sold at the rate of Rs 40 to 45 per Kg, onions at the rate of Rs 60 to Rs 75 per Kg, tomatoes at Rs 100 or so per Kg etc.

The logical question that follows is whether this farcical state of existence will reflect on the results of the election or not. Will these questions be able to replace the all important question that seems to determine the eligibility criteria of each and every budding candidate-his bank balance or black money in hand ?

Time alone will tell but when the moment of reckoning comes, these questions would have transformed from a state of mere questions and idle talks to how the people themselves decide how they will live in the next five years or how the future should be charted out.

Deciding the quality of life for the next five years appear easy for what it involves is just the push of a button on the EVM, but the past is enough indication that leading a meaningful life may not be the factor for deciding which button to punch.

In many ways the seeds for the long queues in front of petrol pumps, the atrociously high prices one has to pay for a kilogram of potatoes or tomatoes or onions were sown at that moment when the people pushed the button of their choice on the EVM and this is precisely the reason why so much importance is laid on the maturity of the voters.

Not for nothing is there the general observation that in a democracy a people get the Government they deserve.

To the political party/parties in power the next election can be understood as some sort of a referendum on their rule and performance while to the Opposition parties, election may be taken as yet another opportunity to convince the people that politically and ideologically they are more tuned in to the pulse of the people.

This is as far as the political parties are concerned. However to the voting members of the public, all elections in the past had meant nothing much more than how much a candidate is ready to splurge on feasts and how much money a candidate is ready to dole out to the voters.

Election has never meant exercising their rights to show their approval or disapproval with the performance of either the parties in power or in the Opposition.

It may well nigh be impossible to say who is responsible for bringing about such a political culture in the first place-the people or the political parties ?

However the absence of any clear cut answer to this should be no reason for the people to keep on condemning themselves to a meaningless life, merely existing not living.

Election is a process of deciding which candidate should be sent to the august House or which political parties should be mandated to rule the people and intrinsic in this is the people deciding on the quality of life they aspire. In deciding who should represent the people, the aspiration of the people is wrapped, signed and stamped.

This is one fundamental point that seems to have always blown over the head of the electorate and the present mess that Manipur finds itself in is because of this factor and none else.

Ideally the election to the 10th Assembly should be something much more than merely deciding who should be inducted into the class of the VVIPs, but should entail a decision on how the people want to live.

This should not be too tall an order to follow, but given the fact that the people have been acclimatised to a political culture in which this point has never been given primacy, it may not be surprising if this proves too tough for the people to follow.

And given the present condition, where not a whimper of protest has escaped from the mouth of the people, where people seem to willingly dig deep into their own pockets to buy a kilogram of potatoes at Rs 50 per Kg or petrol in the black market at Rs 140 per Ltr, the next Assembly election may just be about all noise with no substance.

Do not be surprised if the people vote for another five years of such a farcical existence