Silver lining?

Probably by the time you guys read this, it would have been news already. Despite the turmoil that is going on in the north-east, there seems to be a trickle of hope somewhere – young, educated, dynamic people are slowly coming into politics and redefining the Indian polity.

I’m highly impressed by Agatha Sangma – yes, today, I may have to introduce her as P.A Sangma’s daughter, but I believe, within a few years, P.A. Sangma might be known as Agatha Sangma’s father. Already the youngest MP at 28, she is set to join the union ministry in a few minutes from now. What impressed me is despite being her father’s daughter and the fact that she has many options open before her because of her excellent academic record ( she did her LLB from Pune, Masters in Environment Management from Nottingham University) – she chose a path which many like to batter, despise and make a scapegoat of but never have the courage to plunge-politics. We blame politics and politicians in particular, but do nothing about it- let alone go out and vote. Do we have the right to complain/blame? Just as we have “rights”, we have corresponding “duties”, as well. Well, I believe, Agatha can be a very good role model for the younger generations in general and those of the northeast in particular.

The other day, someone was commenting  on the situation in Manipur and blaming Ibobi, the CM. While I fully understand the anguish of the commentator and the urge to see things improve, it would be unwise to blame each and every person without fully realising what we are talking about and as I say above, without we ourselves, doing our own duties.I’m totally apolitical and I’m not at the least defending our politicians or Ibobi in particular. But just for arguments sake, if we are blaming Ibobi, do we know the man and what he has done/not done so far? Honestly, without asking, referring to newspapers or googling, do we know even the basics of Ibobi like yumnak, where he comes from, his educational profile…? Have we carried out a comparative study of all the CMs and their performance? Have we gone around “manipur” to see what is going on- other than our own and friends’ leikais/khuns? When we do not have even these basics, do we have a right to blame others? Not that we should not raise our voice against injustice, inaction, poor/ineffective/insensitive governance – we should do with all the vengeance, but we should do so with self contemplation and maturity so that the voice becomes effective lest it becomes another din in the melee of the crowd. Besides, I’m surprised that none of us ever raise our voice against the executives/bureaucrat who are directly responsible, accountable. Politicians come and go, they may be illiterate, even criminals, but the bureaucrats are the creme-la-creme, the specialist persons, trained and paid to do specific works and more importantly the permanent feature as against the politicians who have a shelf live of 5 years if they are lucky. For example the MU incident- why hasn’t action be taken against the SP and the DC who are directly responsible for maintaining law and order? Politicians have very little to do in maintaining day to day law and order activities or developmental activities. When the officer is upright and carries out his duties as per law, there is hardly anything that a politician can interfere with. I am an officer and work for the government in a place where there is accountability and I know what effect it has in governance. Anyway, it’s a long and complicated issue, perhaps more next time.

While on politics, I just can’t help but observe that some sections of the press was reporting – 2 from Meghalaya and none from Manipur. While I, emotionally charged with nationalism/regionalism as it were, and would have love to see a Manipuri minister at the center,-  can’t help but wonder – does any of our 3 MPs DESERVE a ministerial berth?

A long time ago I read a book by Dale Carnegie ( I still have a copy!) where in there is a saying, “…two men look out of the same window – one saw the mud, the other saw the stars…). While I acknowledge the existence of the mud, I tend to see the stars…As John Lennon would have said,

“..they may say, I’m a dreamer… BUT I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE!! I hope someday, you’ll join us…”

basanta