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By Amar Yumnam
Manipur is unwell. So is India. Looking at the turn of events, mostly negative and absence of successful management of these – this is there at the country level and worse so at the provincial level, one is reminded of the lessons of a strand of Development Economics adopting the human body metaphor in analysing issues and conveying articulations for societal development. This can be traced to the Greek tradition and Roman law and through the Renaissance and German economist Albert Schaffle towards the end of the nineteenth century. The most prominent of this is the root in the order issued by Justinian in the sixth century for the codification of Roman law, which led to the evolution of a tradition called body politic. This approach is best described in Catherine de Pizan’s 1994 book explaining early fifteenth century root thus: “For just as the human body is not whole, but defective and deformed when it lacks any of its members, so the body politic cannot be perfect, whole, not healthy if all the estates which we speak are not well joined and united together. Thus, they can help and aid each other, each exercising the office which it has to, which diverse offices ought to serve only for the conservation of the whole community, just as the members of the human body aid to guide and nourish the whole body. And in so far as one of them fails, the whole feels it and is deprived by it”.
Here it needs to examine what is happening to the body politic of India and more so at the level of Manipur. In this context, it would be necessary, illuminating and rewarding to appreciate the estate where the weakness lies, disease located and most disjointed from the whole body. Without mincing words, I would identify it as the civil administration component of the estate of government. For the last two decades or so, the security component, as exemplified by the provincial police forces, has been so doggedly engaged in ensuring the personal safety of the persons involved in civil administration (necessarily and most importantly includes political administration). This insurance of safety has, very unfortunately, lulled and dulled the thinking capacity, orientation and application of mind of these individuals engaged in civil administration. The proof of this negative impact of personal security at the cost of public resources to enable meaningful rendering of public services is most visible at busy traffic points, airport, public gatherings and above all when crisis situations arise in Manipur.
The latest unfolding of events establish this fact beyond doubt. The primary role of police is to ensure routine social order and take care of immediate problems of law. But it would be very wrong if we leave it to the police and expect social problems to be resolved by them. The fundamental principle is that the security forces are there to assist the civil administration in smooth and effective functioning. The first and predominant role for ensuring social peace and stability lies with the performance of the civil administration. But the culture of administration over the last few decades seems to have made the civil administration unmindful and unconcerned about the larger social issues. This has made the persons manning it be happy and satisfied with the disconnect with the society and thus sustain a convenient environment for personal aggrandisement. In this process, the civil administration has developed a culture of uncaring and non-concern with the social issues arising from time to time and the larger social dynamics. It has imbibed a habit of banking on the security forces when the crises deepen and hoping the temporary suppression of people would be a solution to any crisis whatsoever. Naturally it has not worked. We cannot make the police always subject to the principle of ‘heads I win and tails you lose.’
The present crisis of bandhs, violence and curfews is just a new testimony to the collapse of civil administration in Manipur. As mentioned above, when the problem has deepened it has now resorted to the use of security forces to suppress the anger of the people. The question however remains as to how long the people of the land have to bear with the incompetence, non-commitment and non-concern with the social issues of the civil administration.
The time has been long and the events far too many for the civil administration to acquire skills and capability to address any likely social issue from blowing into full scale crises. The society has over the years given ample opportunity to it to appreciate the diversity and the complexity of issues emerging from time to time. It is the mandatory responsibility of the civil administration to develop the skills and the responsiveness to prevent events evolving into social crises. But the single issue management approach of using the security forces as regular means to maintain administration has only deepened the inner divide in a pluralistic society and deepened the inter-ethnic divide. The time is not far when even the security forces would utterly fail to sustain governance for no fault of theirs and the resulting social chaos would be very costly in every conceivable term. The time is now and now only for the civil administration to live up to the responsibilities and responsiveness as and when demanded, and ensure a semblance of governance. Sustainable governance can be ensured only by the civil administration connected with the society and never by the security forces.
Looking back at the history of development and Development Economics during the last five hundred years, one is struck by the failure of single issue management approaches at the policy level to deliver development. The subject as well experienced crises within during such periods of single agenda analyses, the latest example being the fall-outs of the Washington Consensus. The fundamentality of appreciating complexities and diversity and timely attendance to the emerging issues are imperative for social progress and stability. This is exactly the area where the civil administration of Manipur is found wanting repeatedly and continuously.
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