TK Haokip
The Congress Party has been ruling India for more than 57 years out of 70 years of Independence in 1947 and in Manipur for the last continuous 15 years with Shri O. Ibobi Singh and Shri Gaikhangam as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively.
During this 15 years regime Shri Ibobi Singh has been holding most of the important portfolios including Finance resulting to desertion of the party by most of the senior Congress Legislators except the junior Legislators who cannot raise any question against the Chief Minister. In addition to this he left his home-Constituency (Khangabok) making his wife its Legislator and now his son, MLA of the same Constituency. This is an insult to and a great loss for many leaders and people of Khangabok Assembly Constituency.
During the rule of Congress, there have been bandhs, blockades, communal tensions, more and more dissensions among the different communities of the State, corruptions, misgovernance etc. in the State. They blame the UNC, NSCN (I-M) and the Centre for the 100 + days Economic Blockade imposed by the UNC for their wrong steps of creating 7 new districts within a night for Election campaigns without considering the difficulties to be faced by the people of Manipur while implementing the new districts. As the UNC did not agree to withdraw the Blockade, the Central Government sent many Companies of Para-Military forces to escort the vehicles carrying essential commodities for the people of Manipur. But, to misguide the common people the State Government did nothing just to blame the Central Government/B JP so that the people of Manipur may vote against B JP. But, their dirty games failed and the State is now ruled by the B JP and its allies. Alas ! Almighty God is there and suppressed now the corrupted Congress Government in Manipur.
The Congress Government have attention to Thoubal District and Imphal City only forgetting/neglecting other districts of the valley and the hill areas of the State. Such divisive attitude of Mr. O. Ibobi Singh is no longer tolerated by the leaders, the youths, literates and Civil Society Organisations of Imphal East, Imphal West and Bishnupur Districts and took crucial role in eliminating the Congress Government from the State.
The Congress Party in Manipur and at the Centre should accept that a new generation has come after 70 years of Independence and should co-operate the new Government and its Party as corrective but not destructive Opposition Party and not to criticise everything whatever done by the Ruling Party in a Democratic and Federal Form of Governments of the States and the Central Government as Opposition parties are not foreigners to criticise the Government all the time. Democratic form of Govt. means the Government run by the majority of total number of the Assembly or Parliament and there is no question of single largest party in the Constitution or any Act. 50% + 1 and above of the total no. of the House means the majority to form the Govt. Counting only larger parties and neglacting / not counting the smaller parties is not Democracy.
Lastly, the claim of DESAM boycotting Jiribam AC MLA Ashab Uddin is not expected from the State’s one of the trustworthy Students’ (literates) Organisations like DESAM. If it is a fact, it should have been raised by other candidates during Nomination, Scrutiny, Withdrawal or election Campaigns. Boycotting a person after having been elected is like illegal and forceful ill treatment of minority people by the majority without any reason and it is not welcome and not expected from .the majority community of the valley, if we expect blessing of Manipur by Almighty God.
The Congress is defeated now and it will never come back again in India and Manipur. Hence, it will be better for the elected junior MLAs to leave the Congress and join the BJP for development of the Constituency and the people they are representing instead of travelling in a sinking ship by leaving the senior 7/8 MLAs who had earned much from the Congress rule during the past 15 years.
Almighty God will bless Manipur now with the rule of BJP-free from corruption with good Governance. Then, Manipur will surely become Sanaleibak. May Almighty God bless Manipur and all communities in Manipur to live in peace and communal harmony.
(The writer is founder president of Eastern Youth’s Action for Development)
Source: The Sangai Express
