Alibi for non-performance : Time to puncture to excuse
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 12 2011 -
Being not in power or more specifically being in the Opposition has been the alibi for non-performance of the representatives of the State for far too long. Tracing the origin of such a mindset may prove futile, but its spillover can be seen everywhere, especially now that election is within a stone's throw away.
Adding gist to this train of thought are the utterances of political leaders, including the Chief Minister of Manipur, who have left no stone unturned to demean the very position of the Opposition.
Being not in power has come to be equated with ‘unable to do anything for the people,’ and if at all provisions of the “breach of privilege” of Parliament or Assembly have to be invoked then it should be against such train of thoughts for it directly erodes the credibility and questions the status of a people's representative. This current works both ways.
For one it gives a good leverage to the ruling party/parties to blow their own trumpet and run down the rival political party/parties at the time of husting or to silence them into quiet submission while on the other hand, it gives MLAs on the Opposition bench the excuse to cover up their abject failure to work for the people who they claim to represent.
Such a train of thought becomes all that more visible in the run up to the election when the failure of any people's representatives are sought to be watered down by citing the case of sitting on the Opposition bench. This however does not stop any MLA sitting on the Opposition to flex their muscle when the occasion suits him or her.
This is what rankles. Not for nothing is an MLA accorded a place of imminence in the order of precedence.
And increasingly it is becoming clear that while this position may be used to exert pressure on Government officials to get personal things done, it is covered up and veiled under the alibi of not being ‘in power’ or not occupying a Ministerial kursi when it comes to their failure to address the needs of the people.
That the main objective of holding election is power is a given. Losing sight of this goal and objective could amount to digging the political graveyard of any political party or even a politician but as in everything with life, there is also a corresponding need to temper the quest for power with a degree of responsibility and consciousness.
It this belief that blends ethics with politics under the belief that in doing something good for the people, power is incidental. Manipur has already had its taste of what political leaders have done under their blind quest for power and in as much as the June 18 Uprising of 2001 was against the geographical extension of the ceasefire pact between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India, it was also against the obsession of the people's representatives with power.
The days of party hopping and the chameleon like characteristics demonstrated by the political leaders of that period fanned the people's angst against the ceasefire extension.
The interesting point is whether any lesson has been learnt down the years. With election within a stone's throw away, already a number of hopeful candidates have started lining up for the Congress ticket, mostly on the basis that this party is likely to form the next Government as well.
There is nothing wrong with this at all, but when failure of the representatives are sought to be justified on the ground that it was so because he or she belonged to the Opposition then it is time to call their bluff.
The litmus test of the people will then centre how they raise the question of what and how much an MLA can do, regardless of whether he or she belongs to the ruling party/parties or to the party/parties which will sit on the Opposition bench.
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