Gaps of the Mental Kind
- Are we missing the bus once again -

Amar Yumnam *

One internet joke my friends from the West send me these days is of a thirty years of rowing competition between Toyota and Ford on the American soil, and the Ford losing on every round.

The Americans tried forming committees after committees to look into the losses but could not result in anything positive. Ultimately they had to outsource Ford to India. This is the kind of appreciation of India's emerging economic prowess.

In fact if one looks at the overall scenario of the country as a whole, one is rightly impressed by the strides India has made in multiples of directions.

Without mincing words, we can say that all these achievements have not resulted from a vacuum but from a continuous and conscientious application of mind by the Indian thinkers and leaders. India's increasing participation in the latest global knowledge race speaks volumes about the foundations the country has laid over the years.

Lost We are: But when it comes to Manipur, it is as if we have lost in every conceivable race. We have not even been able to partake in the India's rising power. After playing with the idea of blaming the Indian policy makers of our lack of development, and they are still abound, yet a careful examination of the unfolding scenario during the last decade or so reveals some critical internal failures.

As time lapses, the cost of our own weaknesses and failures are getting multiplied. One critical failure on our part is the chronic and acute unwillingness to apply our mind to the issues of the land.

Over the years, we have been so conveniently following the path of just acting along the dotted, dotted by the Centre, lines of functioning so much so that we have even left our ability to think behind. The responses, one may take any developmental intervention, smack of absolute lack of application of mind.

In this Context: It is in this background that I would like to examine the implications of two reports, one national and another international, for Manipur.

As mentioned above, India's forward strides have by now got a momentum of its own. The country is now ready to go for ever new innovations for enhancing the competitiveness of the land.

In this context, the thinking of the Sixth Pay Commission in connection with the reward system of employees is a landmark. It was evident from the Approach Paper of the Eleventh Five Year Plan that India now plans to start moving away from the scale based system of salary to a rather efficiency based system of salary.

The latest Pay Commission has initiatives in this direction. Now there are recommendation to measure efficiency not by expenses but by delivery and outputs. This is a small but a very significant move India now makes.

But look at our own State. I can say with confidence that by about the same time we would be having protests and other moves from the employees of the State government for implementing the revised scales of pay as well.

This is perfectly alright, but the fundamental question is the lack of application of mind by the administrators of the land. We must have without further delay an atmosphere and a style of working in the State administration wherein contextual application of mind is paramount.

It is only from the application of mind that we would find interventions alive to the realities of the land would emerge. But if the present trend continues and without a drastic transformation of the style of working, what would result from the implementation of the revised scales of pay would be a further escalation of favouritism and deterioration of the corruption scenario.

The State has a history of not listening to logic but thriving on opportunistic implementation of policies. An examination of the more than two decades old report of the Government of India on Development of Backward Hill Areas and the policies of the State Government all along would establish this in no uncertain terms.

The other report is the just released Global Monitoring Report 2008: MDGs and the Environment, Agenda for Inclusive and Sustainable Development jointly prepared by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The green technology used in the printing of this report resulted in saving of 34 trees, 2078 pounds of solid waste, 12560 gallons of water and 3831 pounds of greenhouses gases among others. Now environment is such a hot topic. Similarly, inclusive development demands our immediate attention. If we mention the Millennium Development Goals, the State Government would say who cares.

The Final Point: The ultimate point I want to drive home is that there is increasing application of mind and knowledge to address any issue both at the national and global levels. But what we observe in the State is a deficit of application of mind in every action undertaken by the State government.

Well, development would never result from such behaviour. Whatever the circumstances, government cannot afford to lose its cool.

Only application of mind and conscientious evolution of policy should be the foundation of administration, and definitely no panic reactions to circumstances.