Dynamics of July 23
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 20, 2009 -

The changing social and political dynamics which the July 23 BT Road incident has triggered is interesting.

The damning sequence of photographs, which Tehelka published, served as the rallying point for the people to raise their voice against what is widely perceived as State sponsored terrorism and from the demand to institute a Judicial Inquiry into the incident, the demand zeroed down to the resignation of the Chief Minister on moral ground, the punishment of not only the police commandos involved in the incident, but also the penalisation of all the officers, who tried to shield the 'guilty' commandos etc.

The Opposition parties, which had taken at 'face value', the explanation given by the Chief Minister on the floor of the House on July 23, soon caught up with the growing disenchantment of the people and staged a number of protest, with the MPP leading the way in demanding the resignation of the Chief Minister.

Even as the MPP emerged the sole political party to audibly raise their voice against the July 23 incident, the seeming lack of unity amongst the four MPP MLAs came to the fore, with even the president of the party, Dr Nimaichand Luwang, publicly announcing that two of the MLAs have been staying away from all public meetings held against the July 23 killings.

The Apunba Lup soon jumped into the fray and began to direct the movement against the Chief Minister, while the Government on the other hand did not hesitate to use the NSA to crack down on the agitators.

The JAC of Ch Sanjit, staged many a street protest and curfew had to be clamped for days on end to ostensibly contain the situation. Then came the class boycott call given by AMSU, MSF and KSA.

The class boycott call evoked strong protest from the guardians and even DESAM. As things stand today, the class boycott call has become the bone of contention amongst different student organisations, marked with acts of torching schools, which had defied the boycott call in response to the call for resumption of classes.

All this while, Chief Minister O Ibobi stood like the proverbial Phoenix, unmoved and indifferent. With Delhi looking the other way round, it appeared that nothing could move the Chief Minister with the Government seemingly content to let the status quo persists. However development in the last few days indicate some changes in the equation.

The Congress or rather the Congress Legislature Party, which had maintained a stoic silence, clearly emitting the signal that they are all united and behind the leadership of the Chief Minister, has started singing a slightly different tune now.

With Delhi summoning some of the important leaders of the Congress to Delhi for a discussion, tongues have started wagging that a change in leadership is imminent by December.

This is a development that was not expected two weeks back. But as they say nothing is final in politics and Ibobi may just continue in office.

However to many of the guardians and students, the key issue is, when the young tots will be able to return to their class rooms. On this count, there has been no change at all.