Political parties gear up for polls
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Newmai News Network

Imphal, April 27 2011: Even as the Assembly election in Manipur is due early next year, and Imphal Municipality Council (IMC) election is slated for May 25 next, political parties, both national and State-based, have stepped up their presence by engaging in the ritual of political mudslinging in public places just to gain political mileage which is expected to be translated into votes.

Many of the mudslingings are scathing allegations bordering on one-upmanship even if one agrees that the issues being raked up are genuine.

BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar on April 24 infamously described on his 3-day visit to Manipur that the Congress-led Secular Progressive Front (SPF) coalition government is a new militant outfit known as a "cabinet" as it were.

Interestingly, the chief minister who leads the State cabinet has not reacted to the statement appropriately, drawing flaks from the State-based Manipur People's Party (MPP).

Mr.Javadekar stated that the wave of corruption sweeping through Manipur deserves to be included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most corrupt State" in India, maintaining that the scam in primary teachers and police recruitments and the lack of power, drinking water, deplorable road infrastructure, ineffective PDS distribution etc.

have all justified the tag.

Ironically, on April 21, few days ahead of Mr.Javadekar's arrival in Imphal, chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh talked tough saying, should any minister in his cabinet indulges in embezzling of funds from Planning Commission of India (PCI), he/she should resign on moral ground and challenged that if anybody proves him of being corrupt he would do the same and relinquish his responsibility gladly.

Meanwhile, Manipur People's Party (MPP) has ganged up with "like-minded" political parties in the State, cranking up anti-Congress agenda to a shrieking decibel.

In order to drive home a definitive point, MPP yesterday conjure-up the America-ruffling confidential diplomatic cable WikiLeaks in which US Consulate General in Kolkata Henry Jardine was quoted as saying that "rampant corruption had complicated efforts to control rising violence in the State".

The MPP leader then said chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh has also been famously referred to as "Mr.Ten Percent" for the amount of cuts he appropriates from contracts and government projects in the State.

MPP vice president and president in-charge Y Mangi has demanded an explanation from the chief minister following the "cabinet" militant outfit slur cast by the BJP Parliamentarian.

The MPP regretted that rather than clarifying on the allegation against the highest law many body of the State the chief minister has been "skirting" the issue by making random statements.

In an attempt to score brownie points, MPP highlighted a contradictory statements by the chief minister saying, while the "chief minister appreciated the proposal of holding plebiscite as a good step on the floor of the House�Ibobi made himself ambiguous and inconsistent by stating that it would be impossible to separate Manipur from India" .

Not surprisingly, the Communist party which is a coalition partner of the Congress-led SPF government, has steered cleared of making a statement against the corrupt tag of the State government by merely saying that it has extended support to the Congress party for the sake of "stability" and progress in the State and warned the Congress against acting "like a big brother and look(ing) upon the Communist party as the tail of the Government" .

Without specifying on which issue he was countering his detractors, the chief minister yesterday trained his gun on political parties, particularly BJP, accusing them of indulging in "spreading false propaganda" against the Congress government.

"I m glad that other political parties are also contesting the election" to Imphal Municipality Council which will be held on May 25 next, said the chief minister mockingly, adding that there would not be any fun in the victory for Congress without opposition from the other end.

He said that, "the Congress party is the only party working for the development of the State and that all other political parties are indulging in spreading false propaganda against the Congress party" .

Whatever the nature of allegations and counter-allegations by political parties, one significant outcome of the brand of mudslinging that is being witnessed is the emergence of development and corruption as electioneering plank in the State and elsewhere in the country, particularly so after the exhumation of multi crore misappropriation of public money by top notch politicians and bureaucrats, not to forget corporate honchos of the country.

Any political party worth its salt finds it worthwhile to take advantage of the prevailing situation in turning the table around.

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