Breather for the North East : Lapsed not withdrawn
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 14 2019 -

Lapsed not withdrawn.

This is how things have panned out and while this is certainly a breather for the people of the North East, one can never write off the possibility of an Ordinance being passed to make the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill effective.

There are of course riders to this such as the Ordinance has to be approved by Parliament within six months of it being passed.

Moreover there will be no Parliament sitting within the next six weeks to disapprove the Ordinance.

This is one way of looking at things, but on the brighter side, it could well mean that the BJP will now have more time to think over the Bill and more deeply study why it was strongly opposed in the North East and have a second look if they are voted back to power after the Lok Sabha election, which is due soon.

And talking about the Lok Sabha election, the interesting question is whether the days of uproar that one witnessed in the North East region will have any bearing when the time comes to vote.

Too early to say anything at the moment, but to be sure the Congress and the other political parties will put their best foot forward to make political capital out of the issue.

Thankfully for the BJP led Government at Imphal, since the Bill was not passed in the Rajya Sabha its alliance with the NNP and NPF will stand and this means the Government under Chief Minister N Biren, whose Government survives to this day due to the support extended by the two political parties, will survive.

Remember the NNP had more than made it clear that they will walk out of the NDA if the CAB was passed in the Rajya Sabha.

After the CAB was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8, it has been the Citizenship Bill which hogged the limelight in all the dailies published from Imphal.

Every single day was about the Bill and the rising opposition to the said Bill.

February 12, 2019 was thought to be the D day as it was on this date that it was presumed that the CAB will be passed in the Rajya Sabha to become an Act.

However as things stand today, things did not pan out as presumed and what one sees today is the Bill passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8 lapsing.

In between Imphal witnessed days of street protests and the last two days were acute with the State Government stepping in and imposing curfew, to neutralise the earlier announcement of MANPAC to intensify the agitation all that more.

It is still debatable whether curfew was the answer to the planned agitation rolled out by MANPAC, for what one saw on February 11 and 12 was intensified protest all over.

On February 12 in particular, with curfew in place, what one saw was protesters calling the shots with obstacles ranging from burning logs and other obstacles placed right in the middle of the road, discouraging movement of people.

The point is, it should be clear to all protesters that anyone who comes out during the days of intense street protest come out because they had to.

No one was out on a sight seeing tour !

Next time there is any street protest, let this point be clear.

Like everything else, protesting should also come with its share of responsibility and the fruits of burning logs in the middle of the road will be borne by the people themselves in the form of potholes !!