Take Manipur's story through 15 States : Khongjom to Mumbai
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 16, 2024 -

This is election year and the question is whether the second yatra of Rahul Gandhi in a little over a year will give the needed boost to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections or not.

Too early to say and while Manipur has not shown an inkling of interests in the coming polls, it is still a matter of great interests to study whether the decision to pick Manipur as the starting point of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on January 14 will have any impact on the way people here vote in the coming Lok Sabha elections or not.

The second edition of the Jodo Yatra is obviously to carry on the feel good factor triggered by the first edition of the Yatra staged from Kanya Kumari to Kashmir sometime in the latter part of 2022 and from which the Congress is seen to be giving a new understanding of India and spread it to the voters.

How will it impact on the coming Lok Sabha elections is a question that must right there at the top, but to the people of Manipur, the concern would more be like on how far the Yatra can go to draw the attention of the Prime Minister to the crisis that has already crossed the 8 months mark.

This point is being raised against the backdrop of the fact that Rahul Gandhi, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and other Congress leaders including Jairam Ramesh took the kick off occasion of the Yatra as the perfect platform to question the deafening silence of the Prime Minister to the 8 months old crisis.

Even as Congress leaders took to the centre stage to talk about what they call the BJP’s focus on ‘violence, hatred’, Chief Minister N Biren talked tough, very tough against the murder of four people on January 10 after they were abducted by Kuki militants at Haotak Mapallok Chakpi Ching in Bishnupur district.

And even as the Yatra entered its second day with a huge turn out at Kangpokpi, people of Sabungkhok Khunou, near Yaingangpokpi, were out on the road blocking the road and demanding the shifting of the Army camp from the said place on the ground that the security personnel did nothing to stop the Kuki militants from opening fire at Meitei settlements.

The road, which connects Imphal and Ukhrul is an important route and many were on their way to Imphal to either catch a flight from Bir Tikendrajit Airport or were on the road for the doctor’s appointment.

The uproar at Sabungkhok would not have reached the ears of Rahul Gandhi but the Congress did score a fine goal in coming out strongly against the indifference of the Prime Minister just a day earlier at Khongjom in Thoubal district.

Manipur gets to send only two MPs to the Lok Sabha, but the question of greater importance here is whether the grand old party would be able to once again get a firm toehold and fire the imagination of the people of Manipur out of the indifference of the Prime Minister.

Assembly election is still more than three years away, but no one is likely to forget the utter indifference shown by the Centre to the crisis, a crisis where each day adds one more tale to the story of deaths and destructions.

The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is not only meant for Manipur, but the very fact that this place was chosen as the starting point of the march is significant and this is something which people will not forget in a hurry.

And if one goes by sheer number, it is also there on record that the presence of Rahul Gandhi did draw in the crowds, whether it was at Khongjom or Kangpokpi or Senapati.

Set to cover over 6,500 kilometres and cross as many as 15 States, the Congress can and should carry the story of Manipur to the people across these States, before the march winds up at Mumbai.

Imphal to Mumbai and Rahul Gandhi seems to have his feet firmly on ground in choosing Manipur as the starting block, a move which can help get the story conveyed directly to the people across the 15 States.

How the State unit of the Congress manage to capitalise on this when 2027 comes knocking remains to be seen, but it is more than clear that the oldest political party in the country is still relevant in Manipur, though it has been out of power since 2017 and now has only 5 MLAs in the House of 60, after the 2022 Assembly elections.