Setting off tongues wagging : Posers over Delhi trip
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 18 2020 -

Certain things just do not add up. Just two days after majority of the BJP MLAs decided to stay away from a meeting convened by the State BJP president on the ground that holding the meeting at the official residence of the Chief Minister was not in line with a meeting convened by the party president, four BJP Ministers left for New Delhi.

To meet respective Central leaders was the reason trotted out by the Ministers during a brief interaction with media persons at the Bir Tikendrajit Airport but this again does not add up at all.

Rare it is, very rare indeed for all Ministers (minus the Chief Minister) from the party leading the coalition Government to go together to Delhi and rarer it is for all the Ministers (again minus the Chief Minister) to meet the Governor before their departure for the National capital.

As news that four BJP Ministers have left for Delhi did the round, speculations started on whether it is back to those days when there was a clamour for a change in leadership.

Numerous calls from those who profess to take a keen interest in the political developments at Imphal were also received at the office of The Sangai Express.

Nothing clear as yet but it is disturbing to note that such a development should come at this point of time when three BJP MLAs have resigned, when the State is reeling under the impact of the increasing COVID-19 infection, when small time businesses are struggling to get back on their feet, when it is not still very clear whether the differences with the NPP have been satisfactorily addressed to and whether the four NPP Ministers have started dispensing with their duties as earlier.

Only time will tell-this has been the safest line to parrot whenever the State is plunged into a sea of uncertainty as now.

Clear that stability has taken a totally new avatar and understanding here for there has been no change of Government after the BJP led coalition Government came to power in 2017, but how does one describe the situation when the departure for a brief period by four BJP Ministers is enough to start tongues wagging ?

BJP led Government still in power, having blunted the recent onslaught led by the Congress and aided in no small measure by the resignation of three BJP MLAs, but can the Government be understood to be really stable as understood in its unalloyed form ?

The answer should be clear to all, but such a situation does not cast the BJP led Government here in any good light and the sooner this is addressed to, the better it would be for everyone concerned.

Manipur is feeling the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, its healthcare system has been stretched to the limit and no one has any idea on how to revive the numerous small time businesses and trades which fed, clothed and schooled a number of families and this should be the time for the Government to sit down, discuss things and work out ways to see how the economic activities of the people can be revived.

Set to rest the speculations and this is something which can be done only when the BJP sets its house in order.

Nobody wants this uncertainty.