Happy campaign

Happy campaign

Manipur is a welcome change from the rut of in-your-face, loud electoral canvassing.

Far from the madding crowd of the Hindi belt and hinterland, Manipur seems like an oasis of responsibility, sense and sensibility. This reference is specific to the Assembly election, circa 2022. There are problems peculiar to the region. Despite the Government’s much-touted ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ and its ‘success’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen beating his own “double-engine” Government’s drum for providing over 3 lakh households with tap water. In 2022! The State had put a 2022 deadline for 100 per cent potable drinking water supply. There certainly is improvement as compared to the Congress regime, but the crisis is still far from resolved. Despite efforts to fast-track piped water supply, many areas even in Imphal face an acute water crisis. Modi held a rally in Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s constituency Heingang and urged people to again vote in the “double-engine” Government. Earlier on Friday last, Union Minister Smriti Irani was seen shaking a leg with traditional dancers of Manipur during her visit to Imphal where she had gone canvassing for BJP candidate Okram Henry Singh.

However, the Congress, which is seeking a return to office, is not amused. On the earlier Congress Government’s “tardiness” in providing piped drinking water, former Chief Minister Ibobi Singh said Modi was lying. “He’s is not God...They were in power only for five years and we were for 15. We had set up the infrastructure,” the three-time Chief Minister said. The hustle-bustle, name-calling and dirty campaign trails apart, election campaigning in Manipur is not noisy and replete with expletives or loud language, but — quite interestingly — a ritual where all parties hoist and worship their flags. Assembly elections are scheduled in Manipur on February 28 and March 5, ahead of which candidates are holding such ceremonies. Once associated with royalty, the flag-hoisting ceremony, firal chingkhatpa, has become an essential part of the campaign. Candidates hold the ceremony at home on an auspicious date and time. There’s a prayer by the local priest and blessings by community elders. People from around the place come bearing rice, sweets, fruits, vegetables, flowers and gifts in general and place them under the flagpole. “We bring whatever we cultivate in our fields for the candidate we support. We give this to show the candidate that we will vote for him,” explained a local. Pleasingly different, isn’t it?