Mirabai and accountability
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: April 17 2015 -

The democratic words, "on moral grounds", have never been in the vocabularies of the Manipur politicians. In the past many Ministers had refused to resign; in one case the high court gave an adverse ruling against a Minister.

Despite the death of an old pensioner AK Mirabai did not deign to tender apology for the faux pas by the officials and retreated to her cocoons hoping that it is merely a passing phase.

Nobody is talking of moral responsibility for this sublime tragedy and Mirabai will be tickled if her resignation is demanded.

It is incumbent on Ibobi to crack the whip now.

People were dismayed that Laisom Ibomcha made a veiled, guarded and cushioned statement whose gravity was watered down by his relaxed face and total absence of grit and dynamism.

People expected a hard hitting diatribe as the deceased was from his constituency.

As a whole opposition MLAs are keeping a deafening silence although they are marginalised and discriminated.

RK Anand distributed pension among the smiling persons sitting under the marquee in his home.

But next door neighbour Laisom Ibomcha was denied this privilege as he is of the NCP.

Had the government looked at all MLAs with the same eye Purnimashi would have been alive today.

If Ibobi had no role to play in driving a wedge between the ruling and the opposition MLAs it should be yet another justification for dropping Mirabai before she becomes the Congress' Waterloo.

Once Ibobi takes over the portfolio he must emulate the system in other states where there is no problem.

It is a shame that the government could not control the mischievous officials in this simple thing of distribution of pension money.

It will depend on the collective response from the opposition MLAs whether Ibobi takes up actions.

If they scramble to be on the good books of the mighty ones they will be subjected to more humiliation and discrimination.

Many issues are at stake and they should read the writing on the wall.