Every time I come across army vehicles arrogantly blowing horns, whistling and imposingly gesturing all to get aside for their smooth passage (this is more often than not) two opposing thoughts occur to me immediately occupying my mind for at least the next three-four hours.

First, the movements by the insurgents, I wish, were successful sooner than later so that at least these daily questioning of the status of our citizenship were avoided.

The second and opposite thought is in favour of the army. I wish the army and para-military forces were so successful that they could wipe all of us out, irrespective of whether we are insurgents or not, so that the world here were cleaned off the “disposable, lesser, and non-citizenry mortals” like us.

This way, they would be able to enjoy a good ride of all their movements, sparing them of the need to blow their horns, whistles and the labour to gesture.

However, after some time a cool thought occurs to me that it would be irrational to expect the army to behave rationally. Their training is simply not for good behaviour in so far as dealings with “others” are concerned.

It simply cannot be the responsibility of the army and security forces to try to improve the relationship between administration and the public in the situations like Manipur’s. This takes me to the governance quality of the civil administration in the State.

Dogged non-learning: When it comes to the quality of the civil administration of the government of Manipur, one cannot fail to be ‘impressed’ by its doggedness in non-learning.

The proximate reason prompting me to re-ponder on this is the recent attempt by the State government to house the army in the playground of the Malom Megha High School. This attempt betrays the non-learning of the civil administration of the State in many ways than one.

Of the many reasons reflecting the irrationality of this decision, some belong to the specific location of Malom.

First, Malom is the village where ten civilians were shot dead by the Assam Rifles at the very beginning of this century. This has been registered in indelible ink in the minds of the villagers in particular, and the people of Manipur in general.

Secondly, it was this incident of civilian killing that prompted Sharmila to launch her indefinite total fast.

Third, the playground of the Malom Megha High School is the cultural and sports centre of not only of the school but of the village as a whole. Remove this playground from the reach of the villagers, one can be sure of complete disconnection of the villagers from sports and cultural activities.

The other reasons are of a more general nature.

First, any move to house army in or very near school campuses would be a very ugly decision at best.

Second, an inviolable global norm internationally is to protect sports and cultural centres because of the multiple intangible values they have on the quality of life of the people. This is why we protect Pologround in the heart of the State capital. This is also the reason why the army was ultimately removed from The Kangla.

Third, given the prevailing circumstances of Manipur, it is paramount to see to it that the civil administration uses its head in such a way where the intervention of the security forces are minimised.

In the present context, the decision almost created a law and order problem thereby adding an absolutely uncalled for burden to the already overtaxed State police. Still further, as the movement against decision gained momentum, it came out that the decision was based on a directive from the head of bureaucracy of the State.

This again added two very unpleasant and unwarranted dimensions to the already vexed atmosphere.

First, it gave an impression that the “non-local” bureaucrats in the State give a hoot to the sentiments of the local population.

The second dimension emerges from the readiness with which the “local” district administration acted on the directive.

It gave the impression that the “locals” were just tails to wag according to the wishes of their masters. These two together gave the impression that the civil administration was not to be trusted at all and in all circumstances. Nothing could be more unfortunate an outcome than this.

Thank God: Thank God that the decision has now been reversed.

But I do wish that we had a civil administration which learns lessons and serves the interests of the population so that we could visualise a more stable society than it is today.