The increasing disconnect Go back to the electorate
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 01 2015 -

The glaring disconnect between the people’s representatives and the electorate is evident.

Like any other people’s movement, if there is one point which the days of street protests and curfew have brought to the fore, then it is the glaring disconnect between the people’s representatives and the people they are supposed to represent.

Go to any Assembly segment in the valley Constituencies of the State and it is more than clear that the people are just not ready to listen to the voice of the very set of people who they elected in the first place.

This says something profound of how far removed are the elected members from the people who they are supposed to represent in the Assembly.

This is where the model mooted by the Association of Premier State College Seniors gains credence (APSCS).

It was some years ago that the APSCS came out with the idea of a home constituency, where the people’s representatives are to go back to the people who elected them to get their feedbacks on important issues and bring them to the notice of the Government.

The demand to implement the Inner Line Permit System or an Act to protect the local people from the unchecked influx of outsiders has literally crippled the valley areas of the State for months.

True to their style, the MLAs, particularly from the valley areas, have deemed it better to watch the unfolding scenario presuming that silence is the better part of valour.

This is what is hard to accept.

Far from maintaining a stoic silence, this is the time for the elected leaders of the people to reach out to the people, try to understand their pulse and accordingly see what may be done.

And interacting with the people who voted them to power is the best way to understand them and their mindset.

Three MLAs have resigned from the Drafting Committee, which was set up to prepare the ground work for a fresh Bill which will seek to protect the local people from the unchecked influx of outsiders to Manipur.

The three MLAs may be justified for taking such a stand for the Government cannot adopt two standards while penalising policemen on duty.

If the cop who opened fire at Singjamei leading to the injury of a civilian can be suspended, how about the cops who were directly responsible for causing the death of Sapam Robinhood ?

This much is true, but the decision and action of the three MLAs would have been all that more laudatory if they had taken the people of their respective Constituencies into confidence before they decided to quit the Drafting Committee.

This is where the idea of home constituencies gain credence.

The idea of a home constituency is more than just receiving feedbacks from the people, for in many ways too, such a model will go a long way in promoting the ideals of participative democracy.

It is at times like this that the elected representatives need to keep a close tab on the feelings and aspirations of the people they represent and the best way to know this is to have a home constituency where the people may get the opportunity to interact directly with their representatives.