PM's sober advice to CMs: Dependency mindset
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 18, 2012 -

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressing the Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security, in New Delhi on April 16 2012. Photo: Rajeev Bhatt (The Hindu)

If Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's advice to the Chief Ministers of the country, particularly Chief Ministers of the North East region, to cut down the dependency mindset is taken into consideration, then most probably the benchmark for governance would be on how far the States can stand on their own without looking to Delhi for bail outs and packages.

The positives in the Prime Minister's advice, made during his address at the Chief Ministers' Conference on Internal Security at Delhi on April 16, are too significant to miss.

Firstly it is a gentle but significant reminder to the Chief Ministers, especially from the North East region, to get down to the task of optimising the resources at hand, however meagre they may be.

This would automatically mean better financial discipline, prudent investment, check on fund misuse and promoting the local human resources. Manipur should understand the tacitly underlined point in the Prime Minister's advice to reassert and rebuild normal, democratic and development process.

The Prime Minister's suggestion is basic and addresses the fundamentals of governance, which unfortunately has not been seen in Manipur for ages.

Governance does not need rocket science technology but at the same it also calls for something more than the ordinary. Get the fundamentals right, is the essence of Dr Manmohan Singh's suggestion to the Chief Ministers and we hope this does not blow over the head of Mr Okram Ibobi Singh, who is now into his third consecutive stint as the Chief Minister of Manipur.

In more than one way, then what the Prime Minister said had something much to do with strengthening the institutions of the State. This calls for two things-empowerment of the institutions at the grass root level and accountability of the people who hold positions of responsibility in the corridors of power.

How far the Congress led SPF Government in the last ten years and the present Congress Government have been able to implement these fundamentals need no elaboration.

The Prime Minister's suggestion is a gentle reminder to the States that the Centre cannot be expected to meet all its financial needs.

This is something which will go down hard with the North East States, spoon fed as they have been for the last 60 years or so and for Manipur, this definitely does not sound good, given the fact that it has already run up an overdraft of Rs 400 crore or so at the close of the last financial year.

For a State which has had to survive on financial sops doled out by Delhi from time to time for over 60 years, it would indeed be a tough call for the Chief Minister and the State Government to deal with the situation if it comes to such a pass that a ban from the RBI materialises in the next couple of days and Delhi refuses or drags its feet in bailing out the State.

The Prime Minister's suggestion was no doubt a sober reminder to all the States to get their act together in the bigger interest of the country, but yet somehow it failed to address the question of how States like Manipur can reduce its dependency mentality.

As long as all issues confronting the State are viewed through the prism of the armed movement, then not much progress can be expected.

As things stand today, Manipur has one of the highest ratio of policemen to the civil population but this has not in any way helped in bettering the situation, though the Union Home Minister is undoubtedly under the impression that situation has improved.

If the situation in Manipur is to be understood only through the cases of violence and killings and the associated hallmarks of the armed movement, then the vacuum that is left unaddressed can only get bigger and this is what has been happening.

So while millions of rupees have been poured into police modernisation, primary health care and primary education continue to be given the short shrift.

Law and order is no doubt an important aspect of governance, but when maintaining the law is seen and understood only in the context of more and more police personnel and more sophisticated weapons, then it can come at the cost of other core areas such as education, health, water supply, sanitation and the power sector.