By – Amar Yumnam
Imphal, August 4:
I write this piece under the spell of sadness in the loss of one of my good friends. Prof Maibam Ranjit of the Mathematics Department of Manipur University has left very unexpectedly this world for his abode in the heaven. He was one of the closest friends with whom I discussed the academic and administrative issues of the institute during my three decades in Manipur University.
While remembering every bid of my association with him, I find in both social and print media the focus on appreciating the ongoing removal of encroachments on the footpaths. It is alright to appreciate but is it the focus where Manipur should be concentrating right now? It is nothing but a routine work of administration. It is addressed at the individual level and the effects of it are felt at the individual level. A boy without a driving license riding a motorcycle on a highway and the traffic police may stop him and take appropriate legal action. The footpath clearance is nothing different from this other than the difference in scale – it is only that the individual numbers are higher in the encroachment case. Another very common feature we find these days are pictures in the print media of weapons discovered by the security forces in one place or the other. All these are fine, but I must insist at this point that all these are but routine works to be performed and sustained by the security forces.
What disturbs me here – as an individual in a society and claiming to possess at least some concerns for social responsibility whenever I hear about social crises happening anywhere in the world – is the success these routine duties have achieved in diverting the attention of the people from the still unaddressed effects of more than two years of social crisis in Manipur; by social crisis I mean – particularly in the present context – involvement of rival groups or ethnicities coming to physical quarrels involving consequential deaths of men, women and children coupled by displacement in large numbers.
The social crisis Manipur has been facing is of a scale where routine functioning of the administration and regular rules have failed to address the consequential deaths and displacements. It makes one feel as well that the administration does not possess an intention for resolving the issues leading to the crisis. Let me put it in another way. What the present Manipur scenario requires is a policy. We need not go into the philosophical and other debates on what a policy is. Let me put it simply as a kind of interventions evolved legally keeping the context in mind and to be implemented by the administration; administration means the government.
The importance of government arises from the fact that any policy can be evolved, advanced and ultimately approved for application and implementation after a due process established by a state; the government is only an agency of the state. To put it in plain terms, a state is a concept possessing a defined territory settled by a population accepted as citizens, and a government possessing the quality of sovereignty; in this, the actions undertaken by the agency of the state is an autonomous one without imposition by any external force.
Well, the agency of the state may be finding it difficult to evolve a policy for general application. But one fact they cannot deny and ignore is the care to be taken today for a secured future tomorrow. In this connection, I would emphasize two points. First, the concern for a secured future and establishing foundation for this necessarily depends on the actions being taken today. Second, the needs of the children are to be addressed today itself; we cannot wait for the future.
The administration of today may not be able to address the larger social crisis issues, but taking care of the needs of the children can never be postponed. It is exactly here that the significance of ensuring a sure opportunity for the education of both abled and disabled children – adversely affected by the social crisis – arises. This cannot wait for the larger social crisis issues get addressed by a policy yet to be evolved. Ignoring the interests of today’s children would destroy the future of both the national needs and the future of the children themselves. Immediate evolution of a policy to address this requirement is what we need. The clearance of the footpath should not be a claim for successful administration and can never be a replacement for the endeavours to enhance the capability of the children; when we enhance their capability today, we enhance the social capability of tomorrow and thus strengthening the quality of the nation. As Bauer put it in 1968: “Various labels are applied to decisions and actions we take, depending in general on the breadth of their implications. If they are trivial and repetitive and demand little cogitation, they may be called routine actions. If they are more complex, have wider ramifications, and demand more thought, we may refer to them as tactical decisions. For those which have the widest ramifications and the longest time perspective, and which generally require the most information and contemplation, we tend to reserve the word policy.” If the larger and whole issue may be diverted from attention, the educational needs of children can be neglected only at the cost of compromising the future social strength of the nation.
