The trouble with the notion of legitimacy in Manipur is, it has in the past few decades come to be seen as something quite different from the due processes of the law. This has been on account of two parallel developments, each contributing equally to a dangerous distortion of what is generally understood as public space. On the one hand the established order has through its brand of political leadership, steeped in corruption and indifference to the larger public welfare as it were, surrendered all moral legitimacy to be the custodians of the law. On the other are self-mandated contenders to the levers of state power, seeking and indeed successfully to a great extent, to fill up the vacuum the former left. Even students`™ bodies are now beginning to stake claim to this legitimacy vacuum. The recent controversy over a students`™ body beating up a school teacher after summoning him to their office for the unwarranted corporal punishment the latter awarded a boy of class six is just one example. The parents of the boy, rather than complain to the police, preferred do so to the students organization, clearly demonstrating the acute shortage of public faith in the established order. The parents are at no fault. The establishment is. The same can be said of the current resort to blockade of the highways by another students`™ body.
The danger of the mix is obvious, and the logic on which it rests so monstrously mutated that the very understanding of the rule of law is in a process of a frightening metamorphosis. The phenomenon is today beginning to erode the soul of the society, even as everybody watches the decaying process helplessly, transfixed by a disdainful awe that borders the absurd. Hence, it has become a reality that an agreement amongst so called civil society bodies or even a group of individuals, to bypass the law or any established norm of any institution of democracy, is considered a legitimate exercise of the power of the people. These resorts and pacts amongst civil bodies to redefine democratic norms to their likings have also come to be pushed as `public interest`. Under the circumstance, the very notion of `public sphere` has come to be reduced to an `illusion` with the precise purpose of sanctifying decisions of those claiming a stake in the state`™s power structure without going through democracy`™s designated means.
What end up challenged are no longer breaches of democratic norms and consensuses, but the very legitimacy of the democratic institutions themselves, hence the profound nature of the danger this phenomenon poses. The understanding of `democratic consensus` won through the ballot has been divorced from the understanding of `public sphere` rendering both the understandings hollow. An agreement amongst `civil bodies` to breach the law seems now no longer illegitimate. Numerous arbitrary street laws, innumerable disruptive activities, and a general collapse of the various instruments of governance mechanism are the physical manifestations that have together added up to a despairing and oppressive state of affairs in Manipur. Things are heading towards a point of no return. Open disregard of law, or else assumption of responsibility of keeping it by any self-appointed guardians of the society are the hallmarks of today`™s Manipur. The government, rather than seeing these as infringements on its legitimate spheres of governance, seems to be treating them as a welcome partnership in the upkeep of social responsibilities. But today it is coming to pass that its partners are poised to rubbish its claim to any legitimate stake to power.
The chaos in the valley districts is replicated in equal measures in the hills where, especially among the Nagas, as again demonstrated by the recent ADC election, it seems elected leaders no longer hold sway. Candidates wanting to contest elections queue up to seek permission of other leaders who claim monopoly of the `public sphere`. Judging by the way things are being allowed to drift, can it be too far when the leadership equation transforms, and `public sphere` come to rest solely in the ambiguous territory of what has so loosely come to be referred to by everybody as `civil society`? The question urgently beggars an answer.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam