CAB indication from President : Alarming situation
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 01 2019 -
The situation is alarming.
With President Ram Nath Kovind indicating that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will be passed in Parliament during his address to the Rajya Sabha on January 31, the protest in the North East States will intensify and one can certainly expect ‘more’ stormy days ahead.
This means that the Bill may be passed any day while the Rajya Sabha is in session till February 13.
While the street protests can be imagined, the Bill can also impact on the political alignments in the North East.
What if the NPP and the NPF, which have already made their stand against CAB known, withdraw from NEDA and in effect pull out from the BJP led coalition Government at Imphal ?
This is a likely scenario which Chief Minister N Biren and his trusted lieutenants must have studied before proceeding to New Delhi.
And what steps can be expected from the Congress to poach on the MLAs from these two political parties ?
More interestingly how about the MLAs who were elected on Congress ticket but are openly backing the BJP led Government ?
And remember the January 31 Statewide bandh in Manipur was literally a Statewide bandh with the hills and the valley for once seeing eye to eye on an issue.
This in effect means that political parties which are based in the hills and those with their stronghold in the valley can come together.
If such a situation arises then what happens ?
Remember too that the BJP led Government at New Delhi must be under heavy pressure to ink the final pact with the NSCN (IM) and the six NNPGs, before the Lok Sabha election.
This question is important for this can have a bearing on the State Government too.
If the street protest intensifies to such an extent that normalcy is greatly affected, then what can happen ?
Will the Army be called out to control the situation ?
Disturbing questions but strongly possible for no one can write off such a situation.
Manipur has seen it all and experienced it all and a seasoned politician that he is, Chief Minister N Biren too must be aware of this.
The biggest headache before the BJP led Government at Imphal then must be the CAB and obviously the impending final pact with the NSCN (IM).
The inter play of the two issues, though divergently different, cannot be ruled out for real politiks is something which cannot be ruled out from the present scenario.
Even as President Ram Nath Kovind indicated that CAB will be passed in Parliament, Chief Minister N Biren who is in New Delhi led an all political parties’ team to submit a memorandum to Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Significant to note that the assurance of the Home Minister centred around the point that the Bill will not affect Manipur and stopped short of stating that the Bill will not be passed in the Rajya Sabha.
From the indication of President Ram Nath Kovind and Rajnath Singh it is then clear that the Centre is intent on getting the Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha and this is where the voice of protests from the people will only get louder.
The coming days certainly cannot be comfortable for Chief Minister N Biren and his men.
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