Defeating the spirit and essence of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India. The BJP led Government here is certainly going great guns, particularly in reaching out to the hills, but a look at its composition should give food for thought to everyone. The BJP did the right thing in going along with the Naga People’s Front and in reaching out to the other political parties such as the NPP, but its honeymoon with some rogue Congress MLAs certainly goes against the very spirit and essence of the strict anti-defection Bill passed and later enacted during the first NDA term under the stewardship of Atal Behari Vajpayee. It is rather late in the day but nevertheless this should give some food for thought to all the readers and the keen political observers in the State. Manipur went to polls with Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Punjab in the early part of 2017 and while the BJP swept the polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand with the Congress grabbing power in Punjab, the case of Manipur and Goa was distinctly similar. In these two States, the Congress emerged the single largest party, but it was the BJP which went on to form the Government in both cases. The similarity ends here, for while in Goa Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane first quit the party, resigned from the Assembly and only later joined the BJP, in Manipur the Congress MLAs who have joined the BJP led Government are still very much honourable MLAs. Honourable MLAs but there is nothing honourable in switching to the BJP while refusing to resign from the Assembly on their own volition. This is what is disturbing to note.
To the BJP welcoming the renegade Congress MLAs may make sound political sense, for it is about the survival of the Government and is line with the slogan Congress mukht but in the process it has given a brutal kick to the spirit of a law which was enacted by the BJP led Government in Delhi during the first term of the NDA Government. This is a dangerous precedent, for when the elected members of the Assembly, who are otherwise leaders of the people have no qualms about violating the rule of law, then everything can go haywire. So while the BJP led Government here may go hammer and tongs against fake driving license, against the growing mob culture, some elected leaders are not setting any good example for the people to follow. Make a law and then kick its essence out of the window. This is what the BJP is encouraging the renegade Congress MLAs to do. If the Congress MLAs are so keen to be part of the Government then what stopped them from resigning from the Assembly first and then face the verdict of the people ? This is giving a new definition to the understanding of the phrase, ‘politics is the last refuge of all scoundrels’. And who wants scoundrels to represent them in the Assembly ? This is a question which only the voters can answer.
Source: The Sangai Express
