All in a day's session
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: August 28, 2023 -

THE contribution made by as many as five Manipuri natives or Manipur-origin scientists working in Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) in the history creating mission of Chandrayaan-3 successfully soft-landing its rover on the south pole of the moon; the reassurance given by Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah to a delegation of COCOMI that the territorial integrity of Manipur would not be disturbed at all; two Manipuri films, namely, Romi Meetei's "Eikhoigi Yum" and Saikhom Ratan directed "Beyond Blast" winning the accolades of Best Meeteilon film and Best Biographical Film (Non-Feature) respectively at 69th National Film Award, etc., etc.

All these happy tidings have been overshadowed by the sorry state of affairs prevailing in the tiny northeastern state of Manipur following the unprecedented communal violence which broke out between the Meitei/Meetei and Kuki-Chin communities since the evening of May 3 last.

Regardless of the efforts that the state and the central governments are claiming to be making for the restoration of peace and normalcy in the strife-torn state, there has been no slow-down in the firing attacks carried out by the Kuki-Chin militants on the Meitei/Meetei people living in the peripheral area.

There may be some semblance of peace and normalcy at least in the capital city areas of Imphal with some of the daily activities back on the track and relaxation of curfew hours becoming longer, but none could say with certainty that it would not be shortened suddenly and cause panic among the people.

Despite all these, the usual political game of blaming each other between the opposition and the ruling for everything and anything continues, without realising that it is not helping the people in anyway in trying to cope with the present crisis and its fallout.

Currently, a raging debate over convening the 4th session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly for one day only on August 29 is going on.

Obviously, the opposition parties, which have been demanding that a special or an emergency session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly be convened so that the pressing issues of the state could be discussed threadbare and resolutions adopted, are not happy with this arrangement.

They have questioned the purpose of convening such a short assembly session when there are so many important things to discuss.

Charging the incumbent government with flouting all democratic norms and rules, the main opposition party, Congress has pointed out that perhaps it is for the first time in the whole country that a state assembly is going to hold its session for a single day only, which is both illegal and unconstitutional.

The Congress party has also cautioned that the state government may face a difficult situation if someone files petition in the Supreme Court against the violation of the Constitution.

Keeping aside the issue of legality or illegality of summoning the 4th session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly for only one day, which the state administration, we are sure, must have gone through thoroughly before arriving at a final decision, the main opposition party does have some valid point in demanding to know the purpose of convening an assembly session when it is not going to serve the public interest.

The government needs to do some serious explanation, otherwise, even a layman would say that convening the 4th session of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly for one day only on August 29 is more of an attempt to avoid a constitutional crisis in the state and save the skin of the government rather than making any sincere effort towards finding solution to the crisis besieging the state for nearly four months now.