By Yambem Laba
IMPHAL, December 23: If the BJP State president Th Chaoba is so fond defending the State against corruption, he should have been demanding a `White Paper` on himself too. For one, he currently has an assistant who had been once detained under the National Security Act for murder, kidnapping and ransom. There is also another under his umbrage implicated in the Rs.6 Crore CORCOM demand note case which this writer exposed in another report earlier.
But more than this, if Chaoba`™s memory serves him right then he should remember the charge of Lt.Col (Retd.) R.K.Ranjendra Singh, former Member of the State Human Rights Commission and a BJP Member since 1998 that he had been once arrested by the Manipur Police whilst he was an MLA in 1973 for having taken bribes from individuals promising them jobs as police constables in the name of the then SP (Central) Chongtham Nandakishore Singh, and sent to jail.
It may be recalled, the matter figured in the Manipur Legislative Assembly when one H. Ibotombi Singh printed a pamphlet on the issue and distributed it. Dr.L.Chandramani Singh who was then the Speaker had this individual arrested and brought to the House and reprimanded for contempt of the House.
But what takes the cake was the fact while he was Revenue Minister of the State in the then Congress ministry, he took full advantage of uncertain land records of the State after a devastating fire in 1990 and transferred 30 acres of land earlier allotted to the Regional Research Laboratory, a Government of India enterprise, to a group called the Kombirei Housing Co-operative Society which was filled with his family members and relatives.
He thought that he had finished his kill when the then Director of Settlement and Land Records, S. Kritibash Sharma had the allotment published in the Manipur Gazette on 26th June 1995.
Then on 31st October 1995 the Hueiyen Lanpao Manipuri daily broke the story as to how land meant for the laboratory had been allotted to private individuals. That report of the Hueiyen Lanpao did not mention the names of the beneficiaries, but I am reproducing the same 19 years later as the case is still going on.
Topping the list is Toijam Seravanu Devi, estranged wife of Chaoba Singh. She is followed by his father-in-law Toijam Ibochou Singh. Also in the list were the late Elangbam Nandakumar Singh his son-in-law and husband of his eldest daughter Bimola; M. Rashmani Devi his then sister-in-law, elder sister of Seravanu; H. Memcha Devi, wife of his younger but now estranged brother Irabot Singh (Irabot had publicly clarified that he had no knowledge of his wife`™s name being incorporated); Thounajam ongbi Leima Devi, widow of his late brother Thaonaojam Shantikumar Singh; and also his daughter-in-law, L.Roma Devi.
Dr. Leishagthem Chandramani Singh, former Deputy Chief Minister of Manipur also found an honourable mention in the list as his daughter Julie Leishangthem is also one of the allotees.
The man who had managed the entire nitty gritty of the affair was someone called Ch. Kaminkumar Singh, who Seravanu told me in a recent interview, took Rs. 25,000 from her to procure the Patta for the land. She also confided that Chaoba, upon their marriage in 1990 had gifted her with a plot of land lying to the north of Hera Talkies.
But when unable to tolerate the mistreatment she was enduring at his hands, she divorced him in 2000, she said. She further alleged that after the divorce he had sent his goons after her and forced her to hand over the lands records.
Politicians hinge their confidence on the belief that the public has a short memory and all their past crimes will soon be forgotten. This refresher to there is to remind the public of Chaoba`™s past, as an acknowledgment of this assumption.
Here is a little more recap. Chaoba Singh began his long and chequered march in politics in 1972 when he was elected MLA on an MPP ticket. He was again re-elected on an MPP ticket in 1974 but soon defected and joined the Congress Party in 1976. A year later he left the sinking Congress ship and joined the Janata Party in 1977. In 1980 he was elected on a Janata Party ticket but when Morarji Desai`™s Janata Party Government at the Centre fell, he almost immediately left the Janata Party and re-joined the Congress Party and won on a Congress ticket in 1984 and 1990 but soon met his waterloo at the hands of debutant N Loken in the Nambol Assembly Constituency.
Thereafter, he changed strategy and with the blessings of Rishang Keishing, the patriarch of the Congress Party in Manipur, stood for Parliament and won in 1996. But the Congress`™s fortunes in the State had changed and the Manipur State Congress Party soon formed a Government in the State. Chaoba once again deserted the Congress party and joined the MSCP and won the elections to the Lok Sabha on an MSCP ticket.
Since the MSCP was a part of the grand formation called the National Democratic Alliance spearheaded by the BJP he was given a berth as a Minister of State in the Union Ministry till Atal Behari Vajpayee dropped him unceremoniously.
Thereafter he joined the BJP and stood as their candidate in the 13th Lok Sabha elections and lost. He then left the BJP and sought refuge with the MPP and was their candidate during the last to last elections to the Lok Sabha which he lost. Then he found himself in a brand new avatar as the President of the Manipur State Unit of the BJP.
It is in this new Avatar that Chaoba Singh began posing himself as a champion of clean politics.