Separate poll manifestoes
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: March 28, 2014 -

File Pix :: BJP Manipur team meet with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on 6th January 2014

Although the manifesto of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming 16th Lok Sabha election, which is said to be in the making with Dr Murli Monohar Joshi as the head of the Manifesto Committee along with launching a website to invite suggestions from the voters since October 23, 2013 is yet to be out, a day after unveiling of the 'repackaged' failed promises as election manifesto of the Indian National Congress, BJP Manipur Pradesh has come up with an unconventional political stunt of announcing a separate manifesto for the Lok Sabha election to the Outer Manipur Parliamentary seat which slated for on April 9 with the assurance that another election manifesto for the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency, which would go to poll on April 17, would be brought out on March 30

Even though why the saffron party, which has been all along making every possible effort to outdo every move of the ruling Congress party is still way behind in bringing out with its election manifesto is not known in spite of the fact that the polling for the first phase of the 16th Lok Sabha election is just 11 days away, State BJP Unit President Th Chaoba has tried his level best to convince the people of Manipur that the release of separate election manifestoes for the Lok Sabha election to the Outer and the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituencies has been done at the directive of the party's high command

Whatever may be the reason and justification, the move to announce separate manifestos for the Lok Sabha election to the Outer and the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituencies has surely open the door for a lot of questionings, which could either be with good or bad intentions

At one level, the voters could interpret this as the recognition of the saffron party to the complexities of the issues facing Manipur today

At another level, this political stunt could be seen as an attempt of the party to understand the uniqueness of the problems faced by the people living in the hills and the valleys and then to find solutions for them accordingly

Still some others may argue that announcing separate election manifestoes for the Outer and the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituencies to reveal the agendas of the party which is eying for the magic 272-plus seats in the coming Lok Sabha election to unsaddle the Congress is a clever political strategy instead of coming out everything in one go as this would place it in a better position to implement them one by one if it comes to power

However, one thing that we could not understand here is how the slogan of 'New Hope-New Manipur' is going to be achieved with the political stunt of releasing separate election manifestoes, which has only given out a strong message that the saffron party is no different from the rest of the political herds which have always conveniently divided the State into hills and valley with no idea for one State, one people.