The election no one watches

The quiet whiteness covers a discontent that has lain latent in the hills since May 5 last year. This was the day that NSCN-IM chief Muivah was to enter Manipur to visit his native village in Ukhrul. After the Manipur government banned his entry,posting commandos and paramilitary forces along its border,hundreds of Nagas in Mao and other Naga areas in the state came out of their homes to protest. The police used teargas and opened fire at the protesters. Two young boys20 and 21 years of agewere shot dead in the clashes. Their memorial,carved into white stone,stands at the entry to Mao village.

Neli Chakho and Dikho Loshou now stand,posthumously,in the midst of a political campaign which is boiling in the four Naga districts in the stateChandel,Ukhrul,Tamenglong and Senapati district. Dikho Loshou used to attend BA classes at St Josephs College in Jakhama,Manipur,and in his spare time,looked after his paralysed mother. Twenty-year-old Neli Chakho was one of the few who got out of Mao to study at St Josephs College in Bangalore. He was home on vacation when the incident took place.

Chakhos older sister,35-year-old Neli Losa says that like her brother,she was also out protesting on that fateful day. But when the security forces started firing,there was confusion and we all ran for cover. It was only the next day that I got to know of my brothers death when United Naga Council UNC officials came to inform us, says Losa.

It is no surprise then that the road which cuts across the district is studded with flags of the Naga Peoples Front,the ruling party in Nagaland that has newly launched in Manipur. Even if a single NPF candidate wins,it will be a fitting reply to the Manipur government. Our attempt will be to ensure that all 12 NPF candidates win so that the state government can no longer behave like we dont exist, says Maos council head Kapani Mao.

But the discontent doesnt show; its rather quiet. Ioniu Mao,a 20-year-old vegetable vendor in Maos market strip,says she hasnt decided on which candidate to vote for. As an afterthought,she adds that it doesnt matter. They usually come and tell us who to vote for and then the entire village goes and votes for that candidate, she says,adding that the unsaid diktat so far is in favour of the NPF contestant.

In the 2007 election,Senapati and the other Naga-dominated districts had a host of independent candidates who stood for elections on behalf of the UNC. After the five UNC victors approached the Congress to be absorbed by the party within a year of their winning,the Naga dream grew sour. It is true that this happened. In any case,UNC is a civil society organisation and not a political party. Therefore,to be able to challenge the government and represent our needs,it was necessary for a registered political party to join the fray, says Paul Leo,former UNC chief and present vice president of the Alternative Arrangement Committee that demands autonomy for all Naga areas. Sitting in his home in Karong village in Senapati,Leo admits that this time round,it will be a three-pronged fight among the NPF,the Congress which is also fielding heavyweight Naga candidates and strangely,the Trinamool Congress. Why not the Trinamool? grins Leo,We all have great respect for what shes done and the way she can stand up to the Indian Government.

Flags with Mamata Banerjees smiling face alongside the Trinamools clover leaves share space with the NPF flags in the upper reaches of this hill district. The hill village of Maram is strewn with Trinamool flags. Thirty seven-year-old Gangi Maram,a native of this village,says this is simply the rush of a new-comer. The Trinamool has put up candidates in 18 of the 60 assembly seats. I know the NPF will come and tell us to vote for them but I personally want to vote for the Congress. Thats because I think its time for nation building now. I want a party that will finally give us some amount of stability. But it depends on the atmosphere the night before the elections. Two elections ago,we didnt get to cast any votes as our polling booth had been captured by a candidate, he says. Gangi Maram is,incidentally,just back from a feast sponsored by the NPF. They came and gave us three pigs at dawn today. So the entire village got together and had a great feast. The Congress hasnt given anything yet but thats okay, he says.

Feasting is an integral part of the elections in Manipur. I dont know how much of this will happen this time because the Election Commission is closely monitoring the expenditure of candidates. Earlier,candidates would competeif one gave a pig to a village in the morning,by afternoon,the rival will have a buffalo sent, says Leo,the former UNC chief in Karong village.

The Kuki quiet

Senapati is cut in half between two of Manipurs biggest tribeswhile three assembly constituencies fall in Naga areas,an equally unhappy Kuki tribe dominates the other three assembly constituencies that span across the foothills of Sadar Hills.

But if the Naga discontent has become an undercurrent over the past year,the Kuki-dominated Sadar Hills are eerily silent. In Kangpokpi,the town thats the fulcrum of the Sadar Hills district demand movement of the Kukis,there is no sign of a state-level election being round the corner. There isnt a single flag. There are no mikes,no canvassing. Even the charred skeletons of trucks burnt by protesters have not been removed along the highway. The Sadar Hills Committee has been disbanded since the signing of the MoU with the state government and a shocked silence has fallen over the foothills. Only two candidates represent Kangpokpi constituencya Congress candidate and a rival candidate from the Manipur State Congress Party MSCP. The rumour in the foothills is that one is backed by the Kuki Revolutionary Army,the other by the Kuki Nationalist Party.

Nemcha Kipgen,the MSCP candidate,is the sole woman candidate in the entire district. Kipgen has managed to gather a surprising number of women in the first political meeting that this area has seen as a run-up to the elections. We were let down by our committee members and leaders. Women did all the work during the blockadewe put up barriers,we went on hunger strikes,we were the ones who dealt with and were abused by the security forces. But when it came to having an understanding with the government,the men quietly went and signed the papers without even consulting us, says Kangpokpi resident Vachin Haokip.

Ghanshyam Pandey is a resident of Kangpokpi. The 29-year-old,whose forefathers are from Ara district of Bihar,says elections in Manipur are nothing less than a farce. Pandey is a member of a very large community of outsiders,called Mayangs by Manipuris,who have lived in the state for generations as businessmen. They are in all districts and run shops,cyber cafés and grocery stores. My grandfather first came here looking for business,after which our entire family migrated to Manipur. We have lived here for generations so we do want a stake in the government formation. But that doesnt seem to matter. In the last election,my family went to vote but when we arrived at the polling booth,all our votes had been cast, says Pandey. But we will still go this time simply because it is our right. Naturally,we will vote for the Congress.

About 20 kilometres away from Kangpokpi,a relentlessly winding road leads to the quaint village of Tori Bari. This Nepali village,nestled on top of a hill with wheat steppes and small fruit and flowering trees,comes into prominence before every election,says 54-year-old Narain Gautam. We want to vote for the BJP but there has never been a BJP candidate in our constituency. So we do the next best thing. The village gets together and decides who to vote for. Sometimes if a particular candidate sends us transport to go to the polling booth,we simply vote for him, says Gautam.

MANIPUR POLITICS:

Hills vs Valley

Buying votes,collective decisions,diktats by militant groups and civil organisationsthey are all simply a part and parcel of the Manipuri electoral process,say political analysts. Even election officials admit that there have been candidates who have gifted voters packets of sugar or rice on the eve of the elections,with cash tucked inside.

But the strict measures introduced by the Election Commission are likely to curb muscle and money power,they say confidently. Prof Ibo,one of Manipurs leading political analysts and HoD,political science,at Manipur University,says he is interested in seeing how the EC rules work this time. The voting percentage in Manipur is very high. It usually ranges between 70 and 75 per cent. In the hill areas especially,the voter turnout is suspiciously exceptional,even 90-100 per cent, says Ibo.

Political analyst Mangi Singh agrees with Ibo and says that though some of these villages are far flung and villagers have to travel 7-8 hours to reach a polling booth,these booths still record over 90 per cent voting.

Singh points out that there are differences in the electoral process of Hill and Valley districts. There are four districts that comprise Imphal ValleyImphal East,Imphal West,Bishnupur and Thoubal. The remaining five districts make the rest of the state. In the Valley,people usually vote for the party; rarely for the individual. So the fight will be between the Congress and the alliance of all non-Congress parties. Its different in the Hills. In the 2007 assembly election,of the 40 candidates who stood for elections in the four Naga districts,only 13 represented political parties. There were as many as 27 independent candidates and some of them even won. In the Hills,electoral preferences are more personal and not so much ideology-based. This needs to change as it is not healthy for democracy, says Singh.