Haplessness of voters
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 11, 2021 -

THERE are sayings that 'whatsoever great men do others follow; the standards they set up, by that the people go'; 'when governments do good things, people do the same.

When those in the government speak temperately, and without excitement, anger or malice, the people - ordinary people - do likewise'.

These locutions might not hold true in the state at the juncture as there is serious dearth of public figures worth idolizing, that too in a land which had produced great warriors and revered personalities.

Sadly, ordinary people in contemporary Manipuri society are left to simply watch the activities of the political leaders and hope for a better change.

Needless to say, every person yearns for a progressive society centring on good and productive governance and hopes that the fruit of development reaches them as well.

The present government has every right to claim credit for return of peace and social stability in the state, which in the past many decades used to be a forbidden land for outsiders due to senseless bloodshed and street protests over varied issues almost every day.

However, it is still questionable how successful the regime has been in accelerating collective economic prosperity development, for there are substantial numbers of families whose thirst for enjoying life's basic needs remain unquenched as the state is still far off from the public's wish to have a thriving economy.

On its part, the government has been floating loan schemes and projects that aim to encourage select beneficiaries contribute their mite towards augmenting the state's economy, but the fact remains that in case the state is to experience sustainable growth, the government needs to judiciously invest in infrastructure development.

It would be of no use if the establishment hopes that investors would be impressed with the government-centric narratives of creating conducive environment for all.

While it is obvious that the government will cite outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic as one of the factors for notable absence of any significant infrastructure development projects, it is equally worth noting that the Union government had exempted activities related to structural projects even when the country was put under lockdown as a part of the virus containment measures.

With elections round the comer, the political elites claiming and counter claiming over good governance and progressive society would be the norm and their aggressive gesture against one another would even silence the civil society organisations, otherwise regarded as watchdogs.

As electoral politics in Manipur has been a playfield for the super-rich since the past many years, it could be safely predicted that campaigning for the upcoming elections would not only be dominated by depressing tongue lashing among the competitors but the young voters would be most vulnerable to substance abuse.

A handful of organisations are certain to voice concern over the practice of entrapping the youngsters as the election pitch gains momentum but their objections are unlikely to have any serious takers for every election held in Manipur is no less than a festival of merriment As the various nefarious means that had been employed to win elections will not be stoppable, at-least in the foreseeable future, the only hope for the commoners is that whichever party or parties come to power, there would be no aversion to opinions that contradict beliefs and views of those in power.