All-Round Institutional Collapse: Hence absence of effective thinking

Amar Yumnam *

Converting the streets in the central business district of Imphal has been our demand for more than a decade. The international and national experience in this regard has had positive fall-outs, and has prompted wider adoption of the policy. It has been converted into a reality by a public announcement of a police official posted in the traffic wing.

Unfortunately this seems to have caused more traffic chaos than streamlining of movement of vehicles and movement of people. Instead of appreciation which would otherwise credit and applause, we seem to be observing fairly widespread criticism as lack of thinking. As it comes immediately after the widespread debate on the quality and characteristics of democracy prevailing in Manipur manifested in the recent elections, this needs to subject to critical appreciation.

Significance of Institutions: Before I enter into a discussion of the recent experiment of converting Paona Bazar, Thangal Bazar and BT Streets into foot streets, I would like to recall the international experience with fostering development. Almost all the developed and fast developing counties have founded their development on institutional strengths and continual evolution of institutions as demanded by the changing times. This is true in the case of India’s richest city, Mumbai.

But what we face in Manipur today is the continuous compromise of institutional strengths and perennial efforts to somehow belittle institutions we have created to look after the various social interests. We are continually paying heavy price in the process.

In my last input in this column I had explained how our rich social capital was fast eroded, if not fully killed, by our individual oriented implementation of programmes. Our social capital to conduct socially productive programmes has now been extensively replaced by public mobs; witness the burning down of houses and taking care of alleged criminals by processes other than the due process of law.

The problems associated with the recent conversion into foot-streets of business streets in Imphal are significant. First, such efforts should always be preceded by a depth examination of not only the converted streets but an all-round study of the entire urban scenario.

Secondly, the institutional absence of the policy is striking. Such policies should have emerged from the Imphal Municipal Council and not from a police official. The police official’s responsibility should rather confine to the effective and smooth implementation of policies and programmes emanating from the urban authority. We have indulged in diluting the proper urban institution for pretty too long and this has made the institution as rather non-existent.

Third, let us look at the traffic police of the State as an institution responsible for maintaining order in the city in the areas assigned to them. They have worn a very pitiable picture indeed. Traffic police today are a much disempowered force rather than empowered.

Look at the way they run around to ensure comfort to an otherwise traffic rule violator VIP and the escort team. Look also at the way they are so silent and helpless spectator when security vehicles violate every traffic rule in existence. This is something which one would never come across in any civilised town anywhere in the world.

Even in India, we would find in Mumbai the traffic police issuing punishment challans even to VIP vehicles on a slighted encroachment into the zebra crossings in times of red signals. Above all the traffic police in the various turnings look like as individuals who have been maligned by all rather than taking pride and enjoying energy in the functioning. This is an example of a double-sided failure of institutions.

The recent evidence of voters accepting all dole outs from the candidates is an example of the cost we have to pay for the collapse of democratic institutions. During the last two decades we have not seen any evidence of the political institutions serving the cause of democracy and the cause of the people in a way fulfilling the Rawlsian principles.

It is not justice alone but it is justice with a morality that counts. The political institutions of a democracy should see to it that they care first and at least the interests of the most down trodden of the down trodden. But the functioning of the supposedly democratic institutions in Manipur recently has been just the contrary of this.

Rather the character of the democratic institutions and the state as prevailing in Manipur in recent years has been expropriatory and violent in nature. This certainly has made the people rather bank on their power of psychology for adaptation. This has made them adjust to the bad equilibrium of unhappiness as if they are happy.

But unfortunately this is a situation which can ensure happiness to the rich either; we have not seen happiness among the rich and powerful either. The absence of appropriate social institutions has made the life of any individual unstable and richness insecure.

We simply have not had for the last few decades the atmosphere of a regular, honest and cooperative behaviour within any community. This is a natural outcome of the absence of institutions to ensure an interaction based on trust and shared norms. The youths have been the biggest casualty of this atmosphere.

Let us look at the emergence of large deaths of youths because of dependence on false dream provided by drugs. Since we have not evolved any institution to collectively address this false dreaming, the youths continue to pay the price of institutional collapse.

The presence predominance by ethnicity based articulations in every issue of development is nothing but the result of failure of the state, presumably democratic, to evolve institutions to address the relative needs of progress. But we cannot take the outcomes lying down and have to apply our individual and collective minds for evolving ways to get out of the mess.

As of now, we certainly wish that the Election Commission of India take the instructional efforts to logical conclusions so that there are even massive disqualifications of candidates when necessary. There were signs of the ECI lapses during the last twenty-four hours of the elections, but now we observe promising actions in place to address the lapses.

Secondly, the responsibility on the people is all the more now than ever. We have now to initiate steps to revive our social capital and put in place as the engine that moves our development.