The trouble with elections in Manipur today is, it lacks a soul. Hence, elections here have always been dominated by the arithmetic of a headcount. The true spirit of electoral politics, in this way has never really internalized adequately in either the politicians or the hoi polloi so to speak, making these exercises superficial, and more in the nature of a five yearly fanfares, than a collective expression of the will of the people as to how they want their affairs to be governed. Election campaigns reflect this mood very much, resembling as they do, one extended picnic for party workers. Feasting, overnight camping, traffic-disrupting rallies that have no other meaning than to blow own trumpets, house to house visits by workers to demonstrate the campaign for their candidate is alive and kicking, and also to attempt to buy loyalty. Public meetings by candidates are also predominantly about mudslinging against opponents. Conspicuous by their absence are talks of any coherent and sincerely drawn blueprints of the future of the state. The absolute poverty of political vision can be gauged from the fact that almost all of the manifestos of the various political parties in the fray are virtually replicas of each others. Transparent in all of them is an avaricious motive to latch on to the raw sentiments from the streets, and since the sentiments on the streets speak virtually the same language, each election manifesto carries virtually the same message in virtually the same language.
Not that the street issues are not important, but political vision must necessarily be laid on a bigger canvas where these issues are placed in perspective. You cannot for instance solve poverty by distributing money, as so many politicians, including the chief minister caught on camera by a newspaper today, seem to think. It needs no economist to tell us that it can only be done by uplifting the economy. Likewise, you cannot solve unemployment by artificially creating more government departments, but by ensuring that jobs are generated in the largely untapped non-government sectors of the economy. As to how these vital larger goals are to be achieved should have been the substance of election blueprints of the parties in the contest. However, no manifesto of any of the parties intelligibly tries to capture the larger pictures of the state of our state, or where and which direction they plan to take it next. It ought to be no consolation that things are not any better in so many other states.
Beyond the arithmetic of electoral politics then, there is also something as electoral chemistry. This is what comes across as extremely scarce. No doubt the number game is a salient feature of democracy as such, and cannot possibly be banished, or for that matter desirable to be banished. The primary strategy of the democratic polity is to establish who or which party has the majority support. But running alongside the number game must also be qualities that make democracy become a contest of social architects and their ideas. Politics against this backdrop would be about a love for the people and the ability to draw up road-maps to a future of greater common good: Visions such as that of a conflict free, equitable and just society; visions also of a society free of the curse of poverty, where every child is guaranteed good nutrition, health, quality education, etc so that they may grow tall and proud, to be able pillars of the edifice of the future of the society in whatever profession choose to go into. Politics under the circumstance would cease to be solely about personal ambitions, but of fashioning the future using the political powers consensually given to leaders at the time of elections. Unfortunately, politics today has still not been able to absolve itself of the number game curse. There is no gainsaying that the game is also a reciprocal process between the politicians and the people who elect them. It is hence up to both to lift the standard of the game and reap the benefits together. But this is always easier said than done, but nonetheless something which must have to be done.
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