Raising posers before PM’s arrival : Cong on the offensive
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 04 2019 -

Presence of a strong Opposition.

Underlining this, the State unit of the Congress has come out with a series of questions posed before Prime Minister Narendra Modi to coincide with his arrival to Imphal on January 4.

This is good for Manipur as a whole, for a strong Opposition should always keep the Government on its toes and all in Manipur will remember how the absence of any visible Opposition worked against their interest.

Ironically it was the Congress which virtually had no Opposition when it stormed the Assembly elections in 2012 winning 42 seats in the House of 60 and then increasing its strength by taking the MSCP under its wings.

One may still recall those days when the voice of dissent against the then Congress Government came only from two/three MLAs, particularly from Dr I Ibohalbi and ironically from Kh Joykisan when he was then with AITC and later with the BJP !

Remains to be seen how the BJP led Government at Imphal will respond to the series of questions and allegations raised by the MPCC (I), but it should not be lost on anyone that questions have been raised and this shows the existence of an effective Opposition.

This reality portends well for the people and the State as a whole, and most likely the response, if any, will come more as a rebuff from the BJP to go one up against the Congress.

This is where it will become interesting. Making it more interesting is also the fact that the scheduled visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be seen as a sort of election campaign for the 2019 Parliamentary elections.

The 8 projects lined up for inauguration during his visit here underlines this observation.

Apart from the 8 projects which have been lined up for inauguration, the BJP led Government too has named four projects for the Prime Minister to lay the foundation stone during his visit on January 4.

Not a bad start to the New Year for the BJP and ironic it is, but the scheduled visit seems to have galvanised the Congress too, best exemplified by the series of posers it has raised via the Imphal based newspapers.

It however remains to be seen how this will impact on the voters when Parliamentary elections arrive.

With the 2019 Parliamentary elections drawing nearer with each passing day all activities taken up by the two principal political parties will be viewed and interpreted through the lenses of the pending general elections.

Early days yet to say which way the wind will blow, but the barrage of posers raised by the Congress is an indication that the run up to the election will indeed be interesting.

It also remains to be seen how the BJP led Government here at Imphal will be able to reap the dividends of the projects which are set to be inaugurated.

Here is hoping that the projects to be inaugurated do not get reduced to the status of some projects which were inaugurated but were far from being completed such as the ISBT and City Convention Centre during the days of the Congress rule at Imphal.