The news : O Joy quits MPP : The result : Rounds of speculations
- Sangai Express Editorial :: February 25, 2014 -

Quote "Politics is a funny game. One day you are a rooster, the next day you are a feather duster-Fred Daley." Unquote, politics never ceases to amaze.

While the profundity of this observation is not lost on us, given the manner in which politicians change their colour especially in this part of the country, this may not exactly apply to Okram Joy Singh.

However in deciding to quit the Manipur People's Party, O Joy has certainly added more gist to the understanding of politics never failing to amaze the people.

With the Lok Sabha election within shaking hands distance, the temptation to read between the lines and speculate on the reasons why O Joy has decided to leave the MPP at this juncture is high, very high, since he has only quit the MPP and not active politics.

On the flip side there is always the chance that speculations can go haywire, leaving the political pundits red faced in the end.

However there are bound to be speculations doing the round from the political pundits to the local elders who gather either in the morning or the evening at the local tea stall, for in his long political career, Mr O Joy has never left the MPP which he joined in 1973 unlike the others who are known to go to bed as a Congressman and wake up as a BJP member and take the afternoon nap as a member of the Third Front !

The media too would not be left behind and to be sure there will be speculations galore in the coming days.

However , without going into the domain of speculations, certain questions are in line.

Is it a case of Mr O Joy being eased out from the centre stage of the party or is it more a question of the man from Langthabal Assembly Constituency getting more and more disillusioned with the party, with which he has been synonymous for decades ?

Or is it a case of the grass being greener on the other side of the fence ?

The last question is important in the face of the fact that he has not announced that he is quitting active politics.

Certainly O Joy is not a rooster one day and a feather duster the next day and this is the reason why his decision to quit the MPP has raised eyebrows and sent ripples across the State.

If it had been any other politician, excepting the stalwarts from the Left parties such as the CPI, it would have been just a case of a political leader leaving a political party to look for better avenues, but this is O Joy, who had steadfastly stuck with the MPP, come what may in all these years.

Only the coming days will tell the real story, especially with the Lok Sabha election approaching.

Dr Nara has already been projected as the consensual candidate of ten political parties, there are at least four names doing the round for the BJP ticket in the Inner Parliamentary seat with only the Congress maintaining a studied silence on its likely candidates in both the Inner and Outer Parliamentary Constituencies.

It is amid this scenario that O Joy sort of dropped a bomb shell and announced his decision to sever all ties with the MPP.

This is sure to add gist to speculations and more speculations, but as said before the answer will come only with the time.

Till then one will have to just wait and watch. This is also the opportune moment to study where the MPP stands in the political arena of Manipur today and see how it copes with the changing times.

With O Joy gone, will the party swing into action and try to re-energise itself or will it let the status quo-continue ?

Will it be in a position to field a candidate in the Parliamentary election ?

More importantly should the importance of a political party be measured only within the parameters of its performance in the election or does it extend beyond this ?

The MPP leaders need to sit down and seriously study this aspect.

It is somewhat a tragedy that the party which was at one point of time the principal party against the Congress has lost its way and is now referred to as the party which has its office behind the historic Mapal Kangjeibung.

A point that political parties cannot be run along the line of managing shops and calculating the incomes from the rents that come its way.

O Joy has left the MPP and while it remains to be seen where he is headed, this is the time for the MPP leaders to pool their thoughts together and seriously get down to the business of injecting fresh life into the party's rank and file.