Elections to the state Assembly have been announced. There is just about a month left to the appointed day on January 28. Although the campaign pitch has still not climbed to familiar cacophony, one can sense already the election mood heating up. The usual rumours of back-stabbing politicians currently in positions of power, trying to eliminate potential rivals within the same party are doing the rounds. The stories of these political intrigues, though some are far-fetched, would have to have some basis. After all, as the old saying goes, there cannot be smoke without fire? As part of this game of intrigues, marked so far by shadow boxing and of course air dashes to New Delhi to attend the durbars of the high commands of various national parties, many supposedly proxy candidates are being foisted by powerful interests as either independents or else as candidates of other recognized parties, to demoralise and if possible defeat party colleagues. In the days ahead, these games should come to the fore, and in all likelihood even turn bitterly violent. It is unfortunate that such insidious games have come to be a prominent character of politics in the state.
If this is what dampens the spirit of those who still espouse positive faith in politics, there are more disappointments ahead which should become open soon too. Candidates in Manipur’s politics virtually go out, haggle and buy voters, as if the latter were mere commodities. This being the case, the profile of those who contest elections in Manipur have radically changed over the past few decades. As a rule, only the filthily rich enter the fray. The adjective “filthy” is important. There are people rich from their healthy instincts for entrepreneurship or else valuable skills. Though rich, because each rupee they won is measured against their own sweats, they respect money. In direct contrast, the “filthy” rich class became rich not for the possession of any respectable or socially accepted talent, but because of their lack scruples in looting public money. Most of the times they are government contractors but often also former bureaucrats and indeed politicians who willingly made themselves part of the client-patron nexus with government contractors and together looted the public exchequer. Almost always, they have no respect for money, for they have not earned it. They would for instance not understand the import of timeless statements on the value of work such as the one by Abraham Lincoln in his letter to the teacher of his son, pleading with the latter that his son be taught to imbibe the wisdom that a dollar earned is worth far more than five found. It would thus be interesting to take note how many of those who come out to contest this elections fit into this new “filth rich” contractor profile.
One more thing is predictable. Nearly all of the putative candidates now would be running after the party tickets of the ruling Congress. Among these would be prominent MLAs in important leadership positions in their respective parties. Thus, in a few days from now, all the talks of the beauty of multiparty democracy would be reduced to a huge farce. In effect there would remain just one party – the ruling Congress, and practically every candidate would be angling for its ticket. In an extension of this farcical game, those who do not manage to get the Congress ticket would then shamelessly turn coats and proclaim themselves as die-hard Congress nemeses. To heighten the sense of tragicomic, they would also suddenly begin harping on the virtue the multiparty democracy and the checks and balances this system provides to governance. But wait, there are bigger tragedies ahead. The most profound of these is, the electorate would see nothing wrong in this. They too would happily become part of this game too, and without even batting an eye, pledge to vote for the candidate who doles them a few hundred rupees more than the other. A lot of this has to do with poverty, but not to all extent. For today a new culture of Mammon worship which has dawned on Manipur, thanks to our so called leaders who have been so selfishly shaping and nurturing it in the hope of ensuring their longevity in politics. Hence, not just the poor, but practically everybody would partake in this five yearly unholy and wild electoral orgy, never bothering they only put more nails in their own coffins each time they fail to exercise scruples in elections. They should pinch themselves awake that the “filthy” money that would buy their votes is proportional to the substandard roads and other decaying important infrastructures which have become their collective destiny today.