Reposing faith on the Manipur Legislative Assembly
- A challenge -

Dr DK Mangang *

Assembly building as a component of the Capitol Complex at Chingmeirong, Imphal in February 2013 :: Pix - Bullu Raj

Law and politics are closely related and in no case, separable. Political goal is to be achieved through the instrumentality of law. On the other hand, law legitimizes politics. Law is the system of rules and norms evolved within the society from the common conscience of the people and the aim of which is the regulation of human conduct and providing security to them. The task of governance is normally carried out by the elected representatives of the people with the help of philosophers, scholars, intellectuals, and advisors.

The study of great civilizations of the world like, Greek, Indus Valley, Egyptian, Chinese, even now growing American reveal that the edifice of civilization is built on the foundation of the ideas of such great personalities. Manipur has also such tradition from time immemorial. There is the story of great seven maichous (philosophers) who advised the king during the great king Pamheiba.

The traditional and classical concept of three pillars of democratic form of government – legislature, executive and judiciary still works in the contemporary democratic countries including the Indian federation and its constituent state Manipur. History narrates us that the former Asiatic sovereign state, Manipur has got statehood after twenty three years of protest of the people demanding for formally announce the full fledged state status of Manipur within the Indian dominion.

Since then, the state of Manipur has its own legislative institution named Manipur Legislative Assembly from 1972 having elected members of it by exercising universal adult franchise. Apart from passing normal and routine bills like Appropriation Bills, various bills covering a number of items enumerated either in the state list or the concurrent list of the Constitution of India were also introduced and passed by the hard earned democratic institution –the Manipur Legislative Assembly in the years passed by.

In the post 90s, people had witnessed an incident of converting the chair of the speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly into a gent's toilet by a respectable member of it which was considered as the ugliest scene of the scared institution of democracy. The another tangible example of losing faith in the highest law making democratic institution of the state was the totals dismantle and set fire of the Assembly building and quarters of MLA's into ashes by the resented people of Manipur on the ground of deviating the MLA's from their fundamental task of maintaining the territorial integrity of the state in June 2001. People of the state, in that point of time, thought that the period of dirty politics, corruption, maladministration, inter aliea, ended with the coming of new government in the curtail raiser of the new millennium. However, what the people thought has turned into a hope against hope.

The acid test for the Legislators of the Manipur Legislative Assembly lies in the ability of enactment of law for the protection of indigenous and early settlers of the people of the state from clandestine movement and mass influx of both foreigners and mayangs in the name development and search for job. It was an uphill task for the Manipur Legislative Assembly because of two important reasons; – (i) it is against the wishes of the mainland politics and politicians and (ii) there is legal complication on the power of state assembly to enact such law.

As a satellite state of India, the former factor is important for the government by the simple reason that the state always depends on the center in all aspect of its activities and the latter is the own creation of the government. If the indigenous people of the state is about to extinction government ought not to stand with folding hand on the back in despise considering that there is no way out in the constitution of India.

It is truism to state that the nieghbouring states like Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh still implement rules to restrict entering non-local so that they can protect marginalized local population. If it is possible in such states there is no valid reason for reluctance on the part of the State Assembly for making a law or framing a rules for the protection of threaten indigenous people of the state. If there is lack of will every matter will be a herculean tasks even in the pity matters.

The state Assembly ultimately could not remain as silent spectator of the agitation of the people of Manipur, particularly the demands of the Joint Committee of Inner Line Permit System. The government convened All Political Party meeting in response to the legitimate demand of the JCILPS and on the basis of the report submitted by the high level committee constituted by the government the Manipur Regulations of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant Workers Bill, 2015 was passed in the Month of March, 2015 without a healthy debate by the members present in the sitting of the Assembly.

The opposition party of the house miserably has failed to perform their fundamental duty of between the line discussions on the bill. It was the darkest day of the history of the Manipur Legislative Assembly and such situation ought not to repeat again. It is clear violation of democratic norms and erodes the value of democracy. The procedure and manner of passing of the Manipur Regulation of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant Workers Bill, 2015 was not different from the passing of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 in the parliament.

The demand of JCILPS for withdrawal of the controversial Manipur Regulation of Tennant and Migrant Workers Bill, 2015 intensified after the death of Sapam Robinhood, a Class XI student of Ananda Singh Hr. Secondary School in the hand of a irresponsible police personnel who took part to suppress the agitation on July 8, 2015. Consequent upon the mass agitation across the state and hundreds of protester injured, the government convened special sitting of the Manipur Legislative Assembly on the July 15, 2015 and the house has unanimously resolved to withdraw the controversial bill without much debate.

The house assured the new bill would be introduced and passed within three months after the withdrawal of the controversial bill. It is not the first time the government was in trouble in making law. While passing the Sri Sri Govindagee Temple Board (Third Amendment) Bill, 2014 the government had the same experience as the followers of Sanamahi religion rigorously demanded to withdraw the bill. Ultimately, the government had changed its position and the Bill had also been withhold.

The current members of the Manipur Legislative Assembly make a precedent of repeated withdrawal of Bills passed by the House. It is not a good sign because people would finally lose faith in the sacred institution of democracy. It is also pertinent to mention here that people of the state have already lost faith in judiciary and executive the symptom of which is menifested in the form of mob justice in the contemporary Manipuri society in the recent past. Therefore, reposing faith on the democratic institution is the key challenge of current members of the Manipur Legislative Assembly.

The legislators ought to strengthen their intellectual capacity to enact law and to rectify their perception of law and law making process. Law is neither a bundle of rules promulgated by the authority of the state nor imported rules from outside howsoever beautiful the rule is. The Austinian theory of law has its limitations and is not applicable in all situations. The rules made in consonance with the pulses of the people would not only be accepted by the people but also a durable and effective rule. In this sense law is contextual in nature. Contextual nature of law disables the government of India to implement the uniform civil code in its territory till date.

As long as societies exist law will be there. Law making process itself requires thorough knowledge of the subject as well as technical skill which needs indepth research, rigorous practice and training. However, the government of Manipur and the Manipur University, at the utmost surprise, has willfully neglecting higher legal education for nearly half a century in the state of Manipur. Despite having National Law Universities in almost all the states of the country including, Assam, Manipur has no legal institution where one can undertake indepth legal research in the state since the attainment of statehood.

The result of which is deficit in generating knowledge of law and law making process. Court is meant for dispute resolution and interpretation of law in case of higher judiciary and is not sufficient for resolving socio legal issues. Had socio legal research been done before introducing and passing the withdraw bills, Manipur would not be in turmoil; the precious life of torch bearer Sapam Robinhood could have been saved and no one might have been injured. The Manipur Legislative Assembly and Manipur society is not a laboratory or a theater for experimentation of law. The government ought to act in line with the advice of the scholars who not only knew and dedicated to the subject matter but also love the marginalized indigenous people of Manipur. The success of government largely depends on the choosing of genuine advisors which again depends on the wisdom of the government.