Politics and Victimisation

Editorial:-
A complaint that the Opposition parties [party, rather, at present since only one seems to be around] always have on the ready against the ruling front is that of “victimization” of its supporters. On this, the SDF’s fifth term in office, the post-poll worries of said victimization have returned with SKM MLAs having reported it from their constituencies and other groups seeing it in a swathe of policy decisions which have come in the barely two months that the new government has been in office. Interestingly, the transfer tease has not happened thus far even though speculations were rife on a major reshuffle being planned. What has come instead is a reinforcing of rules and revisiting of service conditions which had remained overlooked thus far. But this cannot be seen as victimization because even if they were inspired by a desire to curtail ‘influence’, these were necessary rules that had remained unimplemented for far too long. Even in the short run, the people at large will benefit from the tightening of reins in babudom. Even the media has seen largesse being curtailed and attitudes getting gruff, but even these remain policy decisions, which, even if they are unpopular, are not wrong in essence. What is of concern is that the distrust between different sections will deepen to levels of irrational hostility if the air is not cleared soon and at least a basic level of congeniality reclaimed.
Returning to the issue of ‘victimisation’; undesirable though it may be, it is also a reality of even social engagements so it is only to be expected when it comes to politics. And in this regard, Sikkim has a track record which makes this response plausible, so, most of the allegations could be true although the extent of victimisation gets amplified or subdued depending upon which side is narrating the story. That said, it forces some introspection on what makes political victimisation common and possible in Sikkim. The State’s small size gets further abbreviated when broken down to constituency and block levels, and now with EVMs, to the polling station levels. While it would be near impossible in larger states to actually pinpoint which areas voted against the eventual winner, it does not take much calculation to work out the voting pattern in Sikkim. That done, a victimization drive becomes too tempting to ignore. And this time, there is also a bouquet of constituencies which went to Opposition breaking a decade long complete sweep run. One clarifies again here, that this is not an attempt to justify victimization in any way, but an effort to discuss it. It is necessary here to also classify the victimised into two slots - the private/ individual supporter and the ‘government-employed party worker’. Most will claim that the latter group is larger than the former in Sikkim. While there is no justification why individuals from the private sphere should be targeted for their political affiliations, there is little defence for government functionaries who take sides when elections come calling. While government officials are entitled to their political preferences, it is wrong when they become actively involved in furthering the interests of their favourites. This holds as true for ruling party sympathisers as for Opposition supporters. When a government official ends up taking sides, s/he does not think twice before abusing the office to serve that end. The same holds true for teachers, many of whom invariably end up “playing” politics. One thing is certain, govt employees who “play” politics [and this is different from just voting] and back the losing side should not have too many complaints if they are singled out for “victimisation.” They knew the risks involved when they made their decision.
Despite all that, Sikkim is perhaps not best suited for victimization drives since politics here has this nasty habit of infiltrating everything and becomes difficult to avoid for most people. The best approach for Sikkim should be something that the Chief Minister suggested in the recent Budget Session when he invited all Legislators to dedicate the next four years exclusively to Sikkim and its people since the last one year of the term would be enough to play politics.