Quite visibly in the past few weeks, more traffic policemen and policewomen are on the roads in Imphal city. Equally visibly some freshly painted road signs have also appeared. These are indeed welcome sights, ones which provide a ray of hope that some long overdue changes in traffic management are in the offing. As yet, despite these initiatives, the traffic continues to be in a mess, perhaps as a poetic metaphor of the all round lawless chaos that Manipur is today. Hence it is still a pitiable sight to see young and probably newly recruited traffic police personnel, with visible zeal in their countenances, executing textbook traffic gestures they imbibed during their training but with practically all motorist on the road ignoring them and their signals to continue with their insane rush to be first in the chaotic scramble. We suggest penalties to ensure discipline. Alongside the signallers, there should also be other policemen in the sidelines with their receipt book for fines ready in hand. Ideally, as in most other cities, they should be equipped to chase down traffic offenders in case the latter try to scoot. A month or two of strict enforcement should be enough to instil respect of law to a majority of motorists, except pathological lawbreakers.
The macrocosm always reflects the microcosm (and vice versa) of any society. Imphal’s traffic chaos is a prominent constituent of this macrocosm. The lung-clogging envelop of dust on its roads, the unattended manholes, the perennial blackouts and extended load-shedding schedules, the piling garbage at busy marketplaces, are some other. The material presence of these indignity are not just symptoms of a lack of order in the physical world, but also a tell tale reflection of a state of mind the place is plagued by. This state of mind demonstrates a destructive narcissism which has little respect for others. The traffic has often been and very aptly too, used as a metaphor for democracy, its values and mechanisms. As in democracy, for the smooth flow of the traffic, it requires everybody to give up some freedom so that everybody can have freedom. To rationalise the quantum of individual freedom each is required to sacrifice, as well as to ensure that everybody contributes to this pool of sacrificed freedom, the law is essential. If this law recedes and everybody begins claiming unrestrained freedom to drive whichever way he pleases, the traffic would invariably end in a jam. Nobody in such a circumstance would be left with any freedom. Let nobody mistake it then that there cannot be freedom without the law.
What does the traffic chaos in Imphal and indeed the other townships say of democracy in practice in Manipur? Very simply put, it says democracy here is about elections and little else. It exists in form but in substance it is practically absent. Everybody has very skewed and selfish notions of freedom, and supposedly in seeking this “freedom” (or “rights” as others who like to sound a little more learned may like to put it), does what he or she pleases – call a bandh, blockade highways, damage public properties – all in the name of “freedom” and “rights”. The end result is, as in the traffic metaphor, Manipur’s democracy is in a frustrating jam. There is no rule of law does whatsoever and so can there be any freedom either? Against this backdrop, we are pleased to see a semblance of an initiative from the government to put the Imphal traffic in order. We would urge upon it to push the issue in earnest. Specify universally acknowledged norms clearly and then enforce them with an iron fist. Along with the disciplinarian measures, perhaps it would be fruitful for the government to also take up a parallel traffic law awareness campaigns through the media. It would also be nice for the government to also begin thinking in terms of separating slow moving non-engine vehicles and fast motor vehicles. Not the least, we would also earnestly plead with the government to be considerate to pedestrians in framing its traffic norms. In this light we are encouraged by the zebra crossings which have come up at certain busy junctions of the city. Let the macrocosmic shakeup begin and we are certain this would in good time reflect for the better on the claustrophobic state of mind Manipur is trapped in at this moment.