Voting for the 10th Assembly : Bizarre Bazar Character
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 10, 2012 -

In 20 days time Manipur would have sealed her fate, at least for the next five years, and in the process would have paved the way open for the 10th Assembly to take shape and usher in a new Government.

Whether the same bunch will come back or not is a different matter, but the important point is whether the people, at least the bonafide voters, are keen to redefine the hitherto understanding of the election and take it beyond the realm of the 'bazar' where votes are cast on the basis of money being offered per voter or the feasts that candidates host.

It is a question of whether the voters are ready to break free from their caged mentality of seeing and understanding everything within the realm of whether the candidate, once elected, will be able to award them some lucrative contract works or get one of their near and dear ones recruited in a plum Government job while in the process turning a blind eye to the 3/4 hours of electricity that the people get in 24 hours, the road that goes from slushy during the wet season to dusty during the dry season and the non-responsive governance that has been pushed down the throat of everyone in the name of a popularly elected Government.

With the dry season on (this is an observation on the basis of the water level at the spot where the turbine for generating electricity works), electricity or power supply has become even scarcer.

Three or four hours of power supply in a day of 24 hours is what most localities receive presently. This is a dip from the earlier 6/7 hours of electricity that was supplied daily. Pathetic power supply has been the norm for the last 30/40 years and it is hard to imagine if such a state of affair exists in any other parts of the country.

The question is, should this be treated as something which has been there for decades and hence should be seen as something familiar not meriting the attention of the people ?

What does election strategy actually mean to the candidates, the people and those who are seen as the right hand men/women of all the candidates ?

What influence swings votes or for that matter what is the factor that influences the last minute vote swing ?

The last day before the election is generally understood as perhaps the most important day for all candidates and their hand picked men/women but what is the common denominator that runs through the prime importance attached on this day ?

The answer should be obvious to all and the factor that influence the last minute vote swing or the importance attached to the last day before D Day has never ever had anything to do with what is generally associated with the common good of all.

Manipur has never ever witnessed voters deciding at the last moment to go in for a candidate on the basis of what he or she plans to do for the Constituency and the people and on a larger scale for the State. Invariably it has always meant the amount of money that circulates.

As long as election is not divorced from its bazar character, Manipur will continue to wallow and survive on a staple diet of 3/4 hours, or during better times, 6/7 hours of power supply in a day.

As long as voting pattern is decided by which among the candidate looks most likely to deliver on the promise of getting lucrative contract works for the supporters or a Government job for their near and dear ones, the people will have to put up with corruption in high places.

The ball is in the court of the people. It is up to them to decide which way the dice rolls.

But it is important to keep in mind that the rot that everyone sees all over the place is the continuing failure of the people to bring issues which are central to their lives to the election turf. The bazar character is bizarre.