Common Minimum Programme In or outside power
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 20, 2012 -

The Common Minimum Programme drawn up by the five constituent partners of the People's Democratic Front, the Manipur People's Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Janata Dal (United), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, is the foundation on which the alliance christened the People's Democratic Front, will rest.
The popular notion is the Common Minimum Programme or the election manifestoes of any political party, are important only when the alliance or the party in question come to power. Given the bitter taste that the spineless Opposition has left in the 9th Assembly, perhaps it is time to trash this. Whether one is in power or not, it is the election manifesto or the CMP, in case it is an alliance, that should be the yardstick to judge the delivery or otherwise of the political parties.
This is precisely the reason why the election manifestoes of every political parties and in the case of an alliance, the Common Minimum Programme, are accorded prime importance.

As the People's Democratic Front has stated in the opening sentence of its Common Minimum Programme, the 22 point document has been drawn up after identifying the common issues and concerns of the five constituent units, which by extension can be taken as a reflection of what it thinks are felt necessary for the people.
Human rights has always been a core issue and while it has always manifested itself in the form of street politics, the disconnect between what is staged on the ground in the form of protests, rallies, the fast unto death agitation in the person of Irom Sharmila Chanu and the outcome of elections is profound and telling. The PDF's Common Minimum Programme attempts to address this issue and the interesting part is the assurance to strengthen the State Human Rights Commission.
Not surprisingly, the CMP has also pledged to focus on the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Set up in 1998 under the then United Front Government led by W Nipamacha of the MSCP, the Manipur Human Rights Commission has definitely seen better days. At the moment, it has been reduced to nothing but a rubber stamp institution and by all accounts has been remaining defunct. It would be interesting and significant to see how the alliance proceed to give more teeth to this institution but rest assured the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the Commission will entirely depend on how the Government responds to any initiative taken up by it.

In the face of the fact that allegations of human rights violations are increasingly raised against the Government, it remains to be seen how far the political establishment will go to sharpen the teeth of the Commission.

Another interesting point of the CMP is the assurance that the PDF will ensure the complete take over of Loktak Project from the National Hydro Power Corporation to address the acute power crisis.
This pre-supposes that the terms of agreement signed with the NHPC when Loktak Project was taken up has been studied thoroughly and hence the questions, what are the terms of agreement inked with the Corporation ?
Are the documents in place ?
Moreover will the take over, if at all it materialises, mean a greater share for the State or will it remain the same ?
Is the need to talk about the take over facilitated by any assumption that the State Government will better manage the power generation work ?
What were the proposals envisaged in the Detailed Project Report that was worked out for Loktak Project in 1965 ?
As things stand today, the State Electricity Department does not appear to have the documents inked with the NHPC, if the response to a PIL filed in 2011 is anything to go by.
What does the PDF plan to do about it ?
Why did the Electricity Department say that the documents are not with them on the argument that they were transferred to the NHPC before the Department was established in 1971 ?
This was nothing but a blatant cover up attempt, since the NHPC was established only in 1976 after the Electricity Department was born as a separate institution. What is the PDF's stand on this matter ?
How does the PDF seek to address the question of power tariff collection ?

‘People unwilling to pay power tariff’ is an alibi that has stood for over 30/40 years and it has lost is relevance in the face of private enterprises successfully collecting the taxes provided for any service and we are talking about Manipur not some other metro cities of the country.
These are simple questions but fundamental to the issue of acute power crisis. Taking over of Loktak Project sounds fantastic for it seeks to address not only the question of power generation but also something which has had a sentimental and emotional bearing on the consciousness of the people for ages.
However this is not the time to play with the sentiments of the people and the PDF would do wise not to pander to this, but adopt a pragmatic and believable approach.
Bottomline is, it should do its homework or else the CMP will haunt them, whether they come to power or not for it is a public document spelling out what they intend to do and as political parties go, there are lots that each constituent member of the alliance can do for the people, inside and outside the Assembly.