Hobson's choice for Ibobi
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 10 2015 -
Leader of the House Okram Ibobi is going to pay a heavy price for his over-dependence on the befuddled and manipulative bureaucrats.
If what Laisom Ibomcha and RK Sivachandra say are true three officials got carte blanche to indulge in monkey tricks for which the government is going to pay a heavy price and one student was killed and over 50 others sustained grievous injuries.
What the House had passed in the last session is not the draft of the Bill approved by the leaders of all political parties.
Okram Ibobi should first explain to the people many things.
The Bill was passed although most sections were convinced that in the present form the governor shall never append his signature.
Now even ruling MLAs have started expressing their adverse views on the Bill and it does not augur well for the government.
One MLA spoke home truths when he said that sooner than later people may start raiding their homes in protest against the passing of the Bill which will not stand by the indigenous people in good stead.
The unenviable position of the chief minister in this context should also be realised and appreciated.
Ibobi has been saying that the migrant workers are out and out Indians who are permitted by the constitution to stay anywhere in the country, carry on any vocation and own immovable properties.
In other words the Bill duly passed by the Manipur Assembly shall never become an Act if it transgresses these constitutional guarantees. This must be the tipping point for Ibobi.
To say these is not to mean that Ibobi should not do anything to extricate the state from the present catch-22.
As the head of the state he should have extracted a viable and acceptable official explanation as to why the ILP which is in force in Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh should be denied to Manipur.
Manipur had its own ILP in another nomenclature although it was abolished by an official Himant Singh in 1950.
This discriminatory attitude of the union government has alienated and inflamed the people and Ibobi should not hide in plain sight on this important issue.
People have braced for a protracted agitation which will disrupt normal life in the state. Ibobi and his close associates cannot remain as silent spectators.
After all elections are round the corner and they will be accountable to the people.
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