Opposition parties organise Jai Bharat Satyagraha
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, April 29 2023:
Opposition parties in the state, namely, Congress, CPI, CPI-M and JD-U jointly organised Jai Bharat Satyagraha in support of the movement initiated by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi against the Modi-Adani nexus of robbing public money, at Congress Bhawan, here, on Saturday.
Interacting with the media at the protest venue, former chief minister and CLP leader ' Okram Ibobi said that CPI has been an ally of Congress party and the two had formed government in the past in the state.
After parting ways for some years, the two parties are now uniting to save India and Manipur.
He said that nations across the world were once ruled by their respective kings before the world shifted towards democracy.
Manipur was also a kingdom before the occupation by British.
However, the British left India and Manipur in 1947 after realising that they can no longer suppress the revolution for democracy after which Manipur remained as a sovereign nation with a democratically elected government before merger with the Union of India.
Kingdom is in fact dictatorial form of government in which the public have no right to question or raise voice against the king.
People were fed up with diktats of the kings, which is why the world turned towards democracy.
India is considered the largest democracy in the world and under a democratic government, the public have every right to express their opinions, criticise the government, bring up suggestion and bring out faults of the government.
Suppressing these rights has brought democracy to its knees and brings back dictatorship, Ibobi elaborated.
He also lashed out at BJP politicians, who were groomed under the rule and ideologies of Congress, for making statements like 'the country would be better if Modi had been the PM earlier than 2014'.He said that Modi became Prime Minister in 2014 and BJP came into power in the state in 2017.The party seems to forget the term of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
At the same time, they are saying that the country has changed under the Modi government.
But the change is its autocratic governance which censures freedom of expression and speech, and undermines the importance of different organs of democracy such as judiciary, executive and media.
The public no longer feel safe and secure to speak out truth and raise their voice, he said.
The former CM further criticised the Modi government for its nexus with Adani, whose wealth rose dramatically to become the world's second richest man before Hindenburg Research exposed the frauds of Adani Enterprises.
Following the expose, opposition parties are demanding probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
However, the BJP government is hell bent on preventing any JPC probe into this issue, Ibobi said.
He also cited the volleys of questions raised by Ra hul Gandhi against the Modi-Adani nexus as the reason behind the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the membership of the parliament.
It is a ploy to discredit the Congress leader and stop his scathing attack on the Modi government from hurting the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
At the same time, investigation agencies carrying out raids on anybody, who speaks against BJP, have become a common thing, and the same was criticised by many including the US secretary of state.
Several world leaders are questioning the fate of democracy in India and the movement is to raise voice against such dictatorial nature of the BJP government, he said.
On the recent development within the BJP in the state, the former CM said that ruling MLAs are doing the jobs of opposition and if the trend continues, there will be nothing left for the opposition to say in the next assembly session as the ruling MLAs will do that.
Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president K Meghachandra, Congress steering committee member Gaikhangam, MLAs, workers, and leaders of other opposition parties also participated in the protest.
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