Kakistocracy is a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens. The episode unfolding in Manipur is beginning to look like a kakistocracy; a state where the least suitable or least competent citizens of a state have been elected to become MLAs to run a government. The inability to find a suitable replacement for the post of Chief Minister after 20 months of leadership crisis seems to point to the fact that democracy has failed in Manipur as elections are won by means other than intellectual prowess. Let this be a lesson to the electorate to elect competent, well-bred and educated persons in future without falling prey to money and muscle power.
Kakistocracy has to be understood in the context of Manipur where a MLA only from the dominant community i.e. the Meitei community can become the Chief Minister. This post is not available to the 20 tribals MLAs of Manipur since the dominant society decided in the late 1990’s that only a Meitei should be allowed to occupy the CM chair. Realistically speaking, the crèche of MLAs from where the CM material can be chosen is confined to 40 MLAs from the Imphal valley out of a total of 60 MLAs. Even out of 40 MLAs, the MLAs belonging to the Muslim community and the opposition party is excluded from the group of eligible persons for CM post. This is unfair and unjust especially when the dominant community wants all communities to live in a single state. Instead, they should be open minded to share leadership role with any competent persons outside the Meitei community if they want the state to remain united as a single entity and also avoid a state of kakistocracy.
Against such exclusivist tendency of the dominant community of Manipur, who cannot fathom sharing power and funds with other communities of the state, it is not surprising that the helpless and discontented tribal communities, both Nagas and the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar tribes, have been seeking a more empowered local self government arrangement since the 1970’s before Manipur became a full fledged State in 1972 to be masters of their own affairs. This demand has always been opposed and the state continues to exist as a single entity devoid of any emotional bonding which is tearing the state apart under the ongoing ethnic conflict. However, as demographic changes become inevitable, there may be a time when it may become more advantageous to the Meiteis to allow the tribes to have their own political entity in order to retain power and remain masters of their own destiny. The question that arises now is whether the opportune time has arrived for Meiteis to look for leadership outside their own community for the sake of having an inclusive state government? The time has perhaps arrived for inclusive thinking, inclusive administration and inclusive development to save the state.
The tribes got the autonomous district council in the “Hill Areas” of Manipur in 1971 which was buttressed by Article 371-C providing for a “Hill Areas Committee” (HAC) in the Manipur State Assembly and the Presidential Order dated 20th June 1972 specifying the scope, procedures, powers and functions of the HAC during the period of transition of Manipur from a ‘Part C’ state to a full fledged state in 1971-72. However, with the passage of time it is becoming clearer to the tribes that the dominant community will always obstruct the functioning of autonomous district council (ADCs) and HAC in order to keep the tribes suppressed which is becoming difficult to tolerate in a transparent and internet connected world when the Naga and Kuki-Zomi-Hmar brethren of Manipur can witness the prosperity of their brethren in Nagaland and Mizoram while they remain backward in Manipur. This wrong needs to be corrected and a new path of inclusive governance charted under PR.
The current discontentment and distrust of the tribes towards the state government dominated by Meiteis was compounded further by the demand of dominant and advanced Meitei community for Scheduled Tribes (ST) status ostensibly for government jobs but with a hidden agenda to grab tribal lands from the “Hill Areas” of Manipur. The manner in which the petitioners for ST status demand for Meitei community were able to secure a favourable order from the Manipur High Court without the government counsels (both State and Centre) objecting or asking for time and obtaining an Oral Order on the day of motion i.e. 27th of March 2023 by consent of all parties in the petition, but the Order becoming public knowledge only on 19th of April 2023 when it was uploaded in the High Court website, has not instilled any confidence in the minds of the tribes that the State government has been impartial in court and will be impartial in future. The court’s order added to the frustration of the tribal youth and coupled with provocative reactions of the dominant community to the Solidarity March of the tribal students and the incompetent handling of the volatile situation by the district administrations and state government, the clashes became an ethnic conflict between the Meitei community and Kuki-Zomi-Hmar tribes. The degree of distrust is at its zenith and needs to be addressed and remedied.
Under such circumstances, the Central government must understand the dis-connect, frustration and deep concern of the tribes to continue to be part of Manipur which offers them no prospect of holding the post of CM, no empowered local self government on the lines of the Bodoland Territorial Council while the Imphal valley enjoy guarantees under Article 243 to Article 243 O, no guarantee of state government being impartial, no safeguards for fair and just consideration on the ST demand of Meitei community which threatens alienation of tribal lands in the “Hill Areas”, no guarantee that the HAC would be allowed to function properly as envisaged under Article 371-C and the Presidential Order dated 20th June 1972, and no guarantee that administration and development in Manipur will be inclusive for all citizens alike.
President’s rule is an opportunity to set right all the things that currently ails Manipur. These include recovery of looted police guns and ammunitions, restoring rule of law by reigning in non-state actors engaged in extortions and obstructing law enforcement authorities, inclusive and non-communal approach in postings of government functionaries, equitable distribution of development funds to Hill Areas based on backwardness and vastness of area criteria, equitable distribution of major government infrastructure and institutions for Hill Areas and Imphal valley, and fixing accountability on government functionaries for delinquency in discharging their functions properly so that the mayhem that took place on 3rd of May 2023 and its aftermath does not repeat again. Foremost, PR provides the best opportunity to bring about political settlements to end the current ethnic conflict and mete out similar and equitable treatment to the demands of Naga tribes too and this opportunity should be capitalised by the Central leadership while the situation is ripe for lasting political settlement.
Ngaranmi Shimray
New Delhi
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