By Yambem Laba
IMPHAL, December 7: The last Lok Sabha elections saw a major paradigm shift in the preference of the electorate who chose transparency to scams, and the Congress was reduced to its all time low in its history, while the BJP swept the elections riding on Modi Tsunami wave. However while they made substantial inroads into neighbouring Assam, Modi Tsunamai could not cross the nine ranges that surround Manipur and the Congress won hands down winning both the State`™s seats comfortably. It appears the Congress has now made the Lok Sabha seats their ancestral property with Dr.Th.Meinya Singh winning for the third time in a row and Thangso Baite winnig for the second time.
At first appearance it would appear that it was the tactics and strategy of Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh that had ensured a Congress victory but upon further scrutiny it has become apparent that it was the BJP`™s own skullduggery that had ensured its own defeat and prevented the Modi wave from reaching Manipur.
This has become apparent from a vital document which has come to my hands. A document which could have been responsible for the defeat of the BJP`™s candidate R.K.Ranjan, the amiable academician and well-known social activist, who had to rest content with a distant third in the race.
It is a well known and established fact that all national political parties spend much more on their candidates than as stipulated by the Election Commission of India. In fact there are always two accounts for poll expenditures `“ one de jure meant for submission to the Election Commission, and one de facto meant for internal consumption. The latter is always sent through Hawala transactions managed by business houses here in Imphal with mainland connections. According to BJP sources the money was sent through some top functionaries of the party in the State.
The fact of the matter is that while we do not know if Prof.Gangmumei Kamei the BJP`™s candidate for the Outer Manipur constituency also received his full due earmarked for him by the party, it is definite that R.K.Ranjan, the party`™s candidate for the Inner Manipur Constituency, did not receive a single paise from the otherwise reported generous largesse which the BJP headquarters were doling out to their candidates nationwide.
It was after addressing a `meet-your-candidate` show organized by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyathi Parishad at the Manipur Press Club sometime in April just before the elections that he was approached by a BJP party functionary, Shamurailatpam Dayanda Sharma, who is the younger brother of the party`™s general secretary organization, S. Premananda. Dayanda was accompanied by another BJP office bearer in this mission.
Ranjan was shown a demand Letter of the Coordination Committee of six major underground groups in Manipur namely the UNLF,RPF/PLA,KYKL,PREPAK(Pro) and PREPAK and the KCP, more popularly known by its acronym, the CORCOM.
The letter although addressed to R.K.Ranjan was said to have been delivered to the general secretary organization at his house. The demand asked for contribution to the CORCOM`™s collective effort to liberate Manipur from the `colonial yoke of India` and the amount demanded was Rs. 6 crores. The demand note was signed by Ksh. Laba Meitei, Convenor Fimance Affairs Committee of the CORCOM.
This gentleman Laba, according to informed sources is also known as Noyon of KCP. Ranjan refused to accept the letter on grounds that it was not delivered to him directly. Then the matter according to BJP sources went to the BJP state president Th. Chaoba who insisted that the same be delivered to Ranjan.
Shortly afterwards, Ranjan received another set of visitors at his residence who had come to deliver the same letter, only this time it was led by Shamurailatpam Ongi Satyabhama Devi, Vice-President of the BJP and wife of the late Saheed Shamurailatpam Madhumangal Sharma, mother of Premananda and Dayanda.
Again Ranjan refused to accept the demand letter on the same grounds that it was not delivered to him in the first place.
Thereafter she left his house and never came back. I showed Ranjan a copy of the demand letter and he confirmed it to be the same as the one that was attempted to be delivered to him first by Dayanda and then later by his mother Satyabhama, which he refused to accept each time.
According to highly placed sources, the CORCOM is said to have made it understood that they have no stake in the Lok Sabha elections although they did not come out openly with this stance as they did during the General Assembly elections in 2012. Does this mean they did not issue the demand letter?
There are more question that now arises: Why did CORCOM decide to deliver the demand letter to Premananda instead of their established practice of delivering it directly to the person concerned? Or was the CORCOM`™s demand letter forged by somebody else? Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Ranjan never received any monetary assistance extended to him for poll expenses by the BJP central command. Did the money return to the BJP central command or was it paid to the CORCOM? Or did the money simply do the disappearing act?
Around the same time, one RSS cadre told me that one of the persons who went to deliver the letter to Ranjan told him `Ibungo Ranjan se Paise Lou haiba Yadare` (Ranjan has refused to take the money). Where then is the money from the BJP central command?
Shortly after the poll results were out, a party bigwig is alleged to have purchased landed properties near Langjing with an estimated market value of approximately Rs.1 crore.
Will the CORCOM please clarify on this matter as to whether they had issued a demand letter to R.K.Ranjan asking him to contribute Rs.6 crores? If so what is the amount they finally received from Ranjan? And if not will they remain a silent spectator to the whole drama of money making in their name by a few unscrupulous characters who were out to make a fast buck while the sun shone?
And on the other hand will the National Investigation Agency the NIA who are known to have swooped down on petty contractors for having given monetary help to the militant groups in Manipur decide to grant immunity to bigger players siphoning off bigger money?