Congress on a roll for over a decade : Faltering Opposition parties
- Sangai Express Editorial :: May 16, 2013 -

Congress on a roll. And no this has nothing to do with the thumping victory the party registered in the recent election to the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka.

This is about the State unit of the oldest and arguably the largest single political party in the country.

A far cry from the days when the MPCC was in a sort of a total disarray after the vertical split of the party in 1997 and from which rose the Manipur State Congress Party, which went on to form the Government for the next four years or so. The come around has been remarkable.

Ten years in power and well on its way to complete fifteen years, without a change in the leadership of the Congress Legislature Party.

No doubt the stringent anti-defection Bill passed by the Lok Sabha, ironically by the then BJP led NDA Government at Delhi, went a long way in ensuring the boat of the Congress led Government here was not rocked. This was sometime at the latter part of 2002 or early part of 2003.

Nothing it seems can go wrong for the party in power right now, though things may change, if there is a change of guard at Delhi after the 2014 Parliamentary election.

The Delhi effect can be far reaching and the past is the standing testimony.

If the Congress is on a roll here, then the opposite may be said of the Opposition parties, particularly the BJP, the MPP and the Trinamul Congress.

After honeymooning with the Congress in the last two terms, the Left, notably the CPI, has reverted to its earlier role, that is taking on the Congress, and finding loopholes in its policies and programmes, albeit outside the Assembly, as not a single Left MLA was elected in the 10th Assembly.

Numbers obviously matter in a democracy but then so does the presence of an Opposition that works. With 42 MLAs in the kitty of the Congress, the Opposition has been more or less rendered toothless.

This is the case, but should number alone decide how the Government should be kept in check ? A question which the Opposition should seriously ask themselves and try to find an answer.

Not that the efforts are not there. With Parliamentary election less than a year away, the Opposition parties, the BJP in particular, has been trying to sensitise the public on many issues confronting the State and people.

The efforts are notable, but the truth stands that so far the Opposition parties do not seem to have succeeded in firing the imagination of the people or succeeded in taking the people along with them.

Lack of charismatic leaders ?

Or simply a failure to zero in on an issue or two to poke the consciousness of the public.

No Jaya Prakash Narayan and no VP Singh to emerge as the rallying point for the people against the Government.

No Bofors and certainly no Emergency to trump as its calling card. These are some of the greatest failures that can be witnessed in the role of the Opposition parties.

Lack of visionary leaders and poverty of ideas have come to define the Opposition parties. Not that there are issues lacking here.

Why is it that the Opposition parties have not been able to capitalise on the abysmal power supply scenario ?

How about the Imphal Sewerage Project that has dragged on for years and years with nothing much to suggest that it is anywhere near completion ?

How about water supply ?

Or are these too mundane for the Opposition parties to take up, with missionary zeal ?

These are issues which continue to dog the people for over a decade.

Says something profound that the Opposition has utterly failed to take up issues which concern daily existence of the public.