Leader Writer: Ksh Sopen Singh
There were indications of undecided and uninterested voters here and there during the April 17 elections which were held across the four districts of Manipur valley. IFP had captured many polling stations which wore deserted looks most of the time while polling officials somehow managed to enjoy their idle time during poll hours and even seemed intolerant in waiting poll timeline. Interestingly, the total poll percentage of the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency is recorded at 75 % while Thoubal assembly constituency recorded highest poll rate at 91.88 % while Lamsang assembly constituency registering the lowest poll percentage at 34.51%.
In order to grasp the voting pattern of the just concluded election, the constituency wise poll percentage which is readily available in the website of the CEO Manipur of the various assembly constituencies of the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency generates a meaningful account in this regard.
If a psephologist examines the data available in the website along with the thump impressions of the voters which were taken on the Election Day, many interesting political accounts could be generated and this could be used at least for the academic purpose of the higher studies of the political science students while studying voting behaviour of the state of Manipur. The students of political science should orient to more result oriented research works than copy and paste table works, because a result oriented research work has a far reaching effect not only of the society but also of the politicians and bureaucrat officers. It is also important to understand the difference between a statesman and a politician within this backdrop.
To remind our esteemed readers in particular and students in general, the much quoted James Freeman Clarke’s statement is reproduced here: A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift.
Quit interestingly, the writer has interacted with some of the competitive exam aspirants to discuss with them on the issue of parliamentary election. They showed disinterest on this particular issue and even do not know the names of the candidates with their corresponding parties which indicates, though it could not be generalised, that the parliamentary election is unpopular in Manipur despite the fact that CEO Manipur has tried to make the election popular among the voters.
Most people of the state hold the opinion that an election decides the fate of the contesting candidates. It is not the fate of the contesting candidates that an election decides; it is the fate of the people that the election decides. If this political reality could be brought to the understanding of the electors, then there could be certain amount of changes in the field of socio, political and economy in the state. This much awaited political maturity of the people of Manipur is now a distance dream which in turn has created trust deficit in the present socio political set up of the state. This trust deficit has in turn created a sense of self alienation in the mindset of the educated youths. Only result oriented academic research could do a lot towards this end.
Moreover, this socio political reality of the state should be understood by the political parties operating in the state and they are expected to work towards this end so that Manipur could participate in the global race. There is also a wave of enlightened citizenship in the capital of India. The people of Manipur need to have enough time to expose ourselves to the wave of enlightened citizenship.