Seeking fresh mandate from the people : A review

Yangsorang Rongreisek *

People going to the poll on Election Day on January 28 2012

Much before the jingle bells ring this season, any new lesson that can be learnt from the just concluded polls in five states of India is not to repeat myriad mistakes. By the by, politics deals basically with rural masses of the hill and valley districts, especially here in Manipur, and all of politics and its course of action involve relationship among people, supporting each other in common cause, or opposing each other in electoral battle without causing any harm to fellow beings knowing it is a democratic exercise wherein no spirit of communalism contains. That is the true meaning of democracy.

Men and women in politics, whether in elective office or not are constantly concerned with what the public is thinking, what the public wants and what the public is likely to accept or reject in the future. There are also persons in powers who always shake off the plights of their voters who otherwise are expecting greatly from them. That's why voters should never hesitate or fear to express their approval or disapproval about what men and women in power are doing. In this respect, what actually happened may be cited.

In a youth conference held in 2004, a minister declared that he would help build a club for a poor tribal village located in the valley which is listed as a hill house taxpaying village of Ccpur district. In the next conference in 2010, an MP also made a commitment to build a community hall for the same village. Unfortunately, nothing has emerged so far at a time when construction of community hall has become a fashion all over Manipur. In this way, unrepresented communities of Manipur will have to go a long way to realize their dream come true for growth and advancement.

After all, it is their business—the public business—that is being transacted secretly or openly on the pretext of bringing a qualitative change for equality in our society. As the clock strikes tick tock signaling the arrival of the crucial day, another key strategic decision concerns the degree of partnership in the campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls in the country. In the previous elections, candidates of LS polls and assembly elections of the hill districts of Manipur shielded away from close identification with their own political parties on the pressures of the UG outfits but the same practice is unlikely this time due to suspension of operation by the military.

In those polls, many candidates preferred to strike a non-partisan stance which they hoped would have greater appeal to voters in the opposing party. This happened most frequently when it was known that one candidate's party was a distinct minority. In such a circumstances, a candidate avoided any mention of his party in all his campaign speeches. His campaign urged voters to vote for the man—not the party. There are two schools of thought about a final strategy decision; one holds that a campaign starts gradually and reaches a peak just before the poll. The other believes most voters make decisions early in a campaign; the opening stages of the battle should be the most intensive. Many election studies support both points of view.

Many voters do make their decisions just after the nomination of the candidates. Yet, some voters reach no decision until just days before the poll. The safest method for a candidate is to start early, work hard every day, and keep working until the polls close on th election day. A candidate may face a thousand or even ten thousand cheering supporters in a public meeting or rally that is yelling, howling and raising a cloud of dust in support of him or her. The scene may be a street rally in a bustling urban area of Imphal city or district headquarters. In such a situation, a candidate takes to an exhausting ordeal to deliver speeches, and travelling miles farther to undertake house to house campaign, especially in the assembly elections.

In our state, the press has moved a long way from the days when a paper reported in its editorial page only the speeches and activities of the party or candidate it supported in the era of two paged newspapers. Most of the newspapers now take special care to give equal amount of news space to all the candidates. But campaign coverage varies tremendously, however, from one newspaper to another. Generally, only the campaign speeches by party presidents command prominent attention on news pages. In most papers, a village or urban campaign, involving personalities, well-known to the local community often receive coverage and an attention including large headlines, while the rural folks believe such news hardly determines an election victory. That is a division of poll opinions.

Radio, and later electronic media opened unprecedented opportunities for candidates to bring their campaigns to large number of voters in 2002, 2007 and 2012 assembly elections in Manipur. The same thing took place in the 2009 MP Election. Just a week ahead of Election Day in 2002, all the former CMs, R.K.Dorendro Singh, charismatic and parliamentarian Rishang Keishing, late W.Nipamacha Singh and Radha Binod Koijam had a lively debate on the poll prospect of their respective parties in the studio of the DDK, Imphal. It was for a short duration, and more length of time was required to illustrate the accomplishments and policies of their respective parties. That did not happen due to want of time.

Campaigning in the Manipur valley constituencies is easier many times than that of the hill constituencies. Candidates in the valley can cover the whole part of their constituencies in just one day on less expenditure while their counter parts of the hill districts have to conduct vigorous and tiresome campaign, covering a hundred of miles stretching over the constituencies, and these places are far from the state capital of Manipur wherefrom the main strategies of campaign are worked out.

For instance, a campaign trip to Senvon in Ccpur district or new Somtal in Chandel district will involve an expenditure of thousands of rupees which a candidate has to bear for the campaign. The expenditure of such a trip will be tens of thousands of rupees if it is taken by petrol-driven vehicles. Truly, candidates of the valley are endowed with easier campaign. And then too, when a candidate spends out Lakhs of rupees or even a crore of rupees, there is little prospect that he will devout his time to the development of the constituency that he is going to represent in the assembly or parliament.

The best policy for every intending candidate would be to drop the holier than thou posture to concentrate for image building by waiting patiently for the next. If one has a hundred of lakh of rupees, he can first serve the people by developing the villages with public support. When the next election arrives, he will be the most sought after candidate. In that case, he will be honest and readily willing to serve his constituency. This will be a step forward to gradual eradication of all forms of corruption rampant in the country. In one's dictum, candidacy does not meant to accumulate wealth and take recourse to unfair means; but to rise above, widen his or her political vision and raise one's sight.

The tragedy is that if the people are always robbed of their share, there can be no end to social conflicts in the state of Manipur. In short, the people are the share holders of governmental fund deposited in the state's exchequer. Greed of money being the disease of today's society, this time the electorates will mount weight on exercising true adult franchise without fear to defeat muscle power in the 16th LS Polls. (To be contd)

Therefore, why a valuable vote should be exchanged with valueless bank-notes is all the more mind-bending. And the fact that public fund is not meant for building one's mansion is all that has been understood. In the context of the modern Manipuri politics, it is always difficult to evaluate the level of a candidate's reliability or honesty, more difficult is to differentiate one's background from the other before the Election Day. On several occasions in the past and more particularly of the previous election, well over a dozen of politicians unknown romped through it defeating candidates claiming as better rated. The high drama time will arrive in a few months with party conferences in which political sermons will be made by party leaders here and there, defending themselves and their parties' stand before the people who may give in or not.

That is the decision to be taken by the voter in his or her privacy. Even mud-slinging has already started in high spirit and in full swing. In the winter chill, the devil's advocates, orators in their own rights, fraudsters, modest teachers, seminarians, bobby-dazzlers, peter-pans, wood-cutters, folk-singers, job aspirants, right reverends, Ahmed, the most praised, Taariqs, the morning stars, legal luminaries and such and such will be joining the bandwagon to campaign for the candidates.

Their activities will be a fantasy, and on the other hand, wise men that are in the minority belts will stay away from the chock-a-block meetings going on in the villages of both the hills and valley to avoid misfire in the battle—meaning such a fanfare is worthless before what is definitely known. Worthlessly, running dogs normally create growling menace during campaign as if they are the candidates themselves or party leaders—a matter of concern for all the peace loving electorates.

Now, seeking fresh mandate from the people, leaders of various political parties—national or regional will make humble appeals for support to reforms pursued by their respective parties, the kind of reforms that will be far reaching or sweeping in their own words with renewed campaign strategies. Believable or not. This is the choice of the voters. The strategy that how big villages or municipal areas could be approached and captured remains important for the battle. But if and when the roads to villages are blocked, a candidate like a driver has to drive all the way round and back. A reckless driver will drive straight to ram the barricades put up on the road.

Besides, what will follow sooner or later is that many of the candidates choked with emotion will even embrace voters and hug them. A moment will not be lost for it and some will be confident of their strength and will be certain they can defeat their opponents in the LS Polls with ease. Some with borrowed supporters will look around desperately like in a quagmire. When the day arrives, rather unwillingly thousands of voters will be coerced to yield but they will say: "You could not protect us when we needed you most. We need a Robin Hood at this moment". So, will the two representatives of Manipur be able to impress those tough lots from the South and the Hindi heartland in the noisy dream parliament of India which is never to be of a captive audience ?