Raids at Imphal, Aizawl, Gurgaon : Ghost of Rs 332 crore
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 23 2019 -

Residence of former Chief Minister O Ibobi at Thoubal :: Pix - TSE

Rs 332 crore out of Rs 518 crore allegedly misappropriated. Raids at Imphal, Aizawl and Gurgaon.

The accused in the case are all high profile personalities - former Chief Minister O Ibobi, former Project Director of Manipur Development Society (MDS) Y Ningthem, three former Chief Secretaries of the State who also doubled up as Chairman of MDS during their tenure here, DS Poonia, PC Lawmkunga and O Nabakishore Singh and administrative officer of MDS S Ranjit Singh.

This is the news that Manipur woke up to on November 22 and all the named persons are literally among the who is who of Manipur at one point of time.

Reports coming in from the places which the CBI raided today say that hard cash have also been recovered.

Cracking down on corruption or political vendetta is a question that may have registered in the consciousness of the people, but significant to note that the Congress has already gone on the offensive and dubbed the very act of targeting former Chief Minister O Ibobi as an act of political vendetta.

Such an accusation is significant in the sense that O Ibobi is presently heading a group of State Congress leaders at New Delhi to pressurise the Central leaders not to ink any pact with the NSCN (IM) which may have an adverse impact on the existence of Manipur as a geo-political reality.

This is the political reality in Manipur presently and top this off with the intense movement against the move of the BJP led Government at New Delhi to introduce the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament and Manipur is currently in a politically volatile state.

Not exactly a case of two plus two is equal to four, but a look at the reality does say something significant.

The residences of some of the profile personalities, who have been named accused in the case, perfectly go with their persona, something which is unthinkable for a Government servant to build.

It is for the Court to judge, but significantly the raid at the residences of some of these high profile personalities has certainly evoked very keen interest, not so much on whether they are actually guilty but on the premise that it is high time for the Government to crack down on those who have got their hands muddied in funds which are meant for the public.

That not everything was right with MDS could be seen from the day the BJP led Government assumed power in Imphal and started cracking the whip, first registering a case.

One only hopes that this is not an eye wash or a witch hunt or politically motivated, for that would amount to cheating the people.

Here is a former Chief Minister, a former Project Director of a high profile department and three former Chief Secretaries and belittling their former status under any political agenda would be far removed from the understanding of cleaning the stable.

Obvious that the whip has been cracked, but make sure that the whip does not lash the wrong person in the blindness that may be kicked up by the dust of political vendetta.