Central observers here after trip to Delhi : From July 14 to July 24
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 25 2020 -

It is getting interesting, yet at the same time one wonders whether this is the right time or not.

Must have been brewing for some time and from the barely a whisper here and there today one sees this hush-hush move blooming in all its glory in the visit of two Central leaders of the BJP, who have held one to one meet with the BJP MLAs one after the other over a period of 48 hours.

Rewind to July 14 and one will remember four of the five BJP Ministers calling on Governor Najma Heptulla just hours before their departure for New Delhi.

Nothing new in BJP Ministers calling on the Governor, but significant to note that this particular meeting was sans the Chief Minister.

Moreover it is not often heard of Ministers or MLAs calling on the Governor before their departure for New Delhi, ostensibly to meet Central leaders of the party and in the words of the BJP Ministers, to brief the Central leaders of the political situation in the State.

Pictures of the four BJP MLAs meeting the Governor were also released to the press ostensibly for wide coverage, while not spelling out the reason for the meeting with the Governor.

Or is it a case of just the four Ministers briefing the Governor, sans the Chief Minister ?

This is what was uncommon.

Again it is not very often that four Ministers take the same flight to meet Central leaders.

There may not be anything much to read in the meeting with the Governor, the four BJP Ministers going together in the same flight to Delhi to brief Central leaders, but some things just do not add up.

For instance, this is the age of coronavirus and even important meetings which the Prime Minister convenes are held via video conference and personally taking a flight to Delhi to brief Central leaders could not have been an ordinary trip.

This line of thinking has been given a certain sense of legitimacy in that shortly after the return of the BJP Ministers, two Central observers of the BJP arrived at Imphal to hold one to one meetings with the BJP legislators.

That the meeting stretched over two days or 48 hours is an indication that each BJP MLA was granted audience long enough to spell out where he or she stands, on whatever the issue is.

Yet at the same time it also stands that it is difficult to believe that the visit of the two observers would have anything to do with studying the impact of COVID-19 on the people of the State or anything to do with any project taken up in the State.

To the keen political observers, the visit of the two Central observers must have elicited much interest, including the media, particularly The Sangai Express.

Difficult to say how things will develop in the coming days, but already voices of concern have been raised from different quarters on whether this is the right time to settle political scores.

Already the All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur has openly stated that political leaders of the day should stop squabbling and instead focus on battling COVID-19 and the numerous works at hand which demand the attention of the Government.

But who will listen to the sane stand of the student body is the question.