Abandoning the post : CM on Tokyo tour
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 03 2011 -

It is not that this will sound the deathknell of Manipur. However the mentality sucks and is unacceptable. A foreign tour, ostensibly to present India’s case to potential investors at Tokyo is not a bad idea at all, but there is something called timing as well as the extra baggage called family members in tow, which do nothing except add that ambience that one generally associates with a holiday.

Topping this is the planned and extended tour to exotic European destinations such as Luxembourg, Paris and Madrid. Mr Okram Ibobi Singh has no business to go to Tokyo, much less take his family along at this juncture. Period.

What has happened to these class of people who we call politicians ? Don't they even have a shred of shame or that teeny-weeny sense of responsibility ?

Or is it a question of giving a damn about the sensibilities of the people ? Tokyo, one of the better capital cities in Asia and in fact the capital of the second largest economy in the world, not long back, before China surged ahead and took that position, is without a doubt an attractive proposition, especially with the family in tow.

However it rankles to know that the honourable Chief Minister left for Tokyo just a few hours after the fourth round of talk with the Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee broke down with the representatives of the Committee staging a walk out.

As the Chief Minister's cavalcade zoomed through the road to the airport, complete with all the sirens and the wheezing red light and policemen adorned with the ugliest scowl on their visage to frighten the hell out of the people to make way for the VVIP, hundreds of people were in queues outside petrol pumps, waiting to get their rationed share of fuel worth Rs 300 or Rs 400.

That the September Sun was blazing away in all its glory must have missed the Chief Minister's notice, cooped up as he is in air conditioned rooms and whizzing around in AC cars, complete with all the comforts that modern day has to offer, but it surely says something about his concern and attitude towards the people.

If the queues at the petrol pumps are serpentine with people having to stay overnight then the prices of essential commodities have hit the ceiling and young students are disturbed with the thought of whether school will remain open or will close down in the face of school vans being grounded for want of fuel.

This is apart from the fact that drivers have to literally stick their necks out while traversing through the treacherous terrain of National Highway-37 while the rule of the mob runs on every stretch of National Highway-2, one on account of the blockade and general strike called to pursue the demand for district status on Sadar Hills and the other due to the indefinite bandh called by the United Naga Council against any move to grant district status to Sadar Hills, without consulting them or the Naga people.

The Jiribam district demand move is set to intensify in the coming days and tension over the Sadar Hills issue is so thick that one can run a knife through it.

Petrol pumps continue to ration fuel, while the same is available in the black market at the atrocious rate of Rs 130/140 per litre for the not so adulterated ones. The price of a filled LPG cylinder in the black market has crossed the Rs 1000 mark a long time back.

The campaign against AFSPA is beginning to look like it has taken a new turn and Irom Sharmila Chanu sees herself being hurtled into the limelight and what will follow is anybody’s guess. A repeat of 2004 cannot be ruled out.

And so it is that the Chief Minister left Imphal for Tokyo with all these issues tearing apart the people and the land. The attempt of sending out a message that the Chief Minister made up his mind to proceed to Tokyo only at the Nth hour, ostensibly on account of the situation here, is a lesson on how not to try pulling wool over the eyes of the public.

Where was the need to even think about the Tokyo trip ? To any conscientious leader, the answer would have been a firm “No, I cannot go. My people are suffering and the State is in turmoil.”

And to think that Mr Okram Ibobi took the decision to proceed to Tokyo after the SHDDC representatives walked out of the meeting without making any headway in the Sadar Hills imbroglio !

What a joke ! Power corrupts and absolute power not only corrupts absolutely but also bloats one’s head to the point of extreme arrogance.

It was the cocktail of arrogance and selfishness that drove the Chief Minister to take the Tour Tokyo decision.

Shorn of any sense of responsibility, any sense of shame and any concern for the people and the land, it is time for the people to take a call on the nonsensical antics that have been staged down the years by people who are supposed to be their representatives.

And anyway what can the people expect from his participation in the conference on attracting foreign investment to India ? Nothing.

What is there to be expected from a leader, who can have a sound sleep while his subjects twiddle their thumbs and worry about the next supply of LPG to reach their kitchen ? Remember the last time the Chief Minister went to the United States and Thailand, Bangkok to be more precise ?

Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burnt, is a classic example of a leader indulging in himself while his people and land literally burnt.

In the present case, it may well be the Chief Minister holidaying with his family under the proxy of a conference, while the lifelines of the people lie cut and disconnected.

People's sensibilities getting kicked and mauled by an insensitive, corrupt, selfish political establishment has been one of the defining characteristics of Manipur and something has to give. It cannot go on like this forever.

The big question is whether the people have it in them to effect a change or whether the status quo will remain as long as they get their proverbial share of the fuel