How to become a Minister

Free Thinker *

After 10th of March, all the newly elected ‘Sixty’ would start running around to become Ministers except a few who aspire to be the Chief Minister. To fulfil your dream the first and foremost requirement is that your party should be part of the Government which is to be constructed within a few days after the declaration of the results.

Most of the new MLAs will be erstwhile builders and contractors and so it won’t be difficult to construct a Government before the stipulated time, 19 March.

Manipur is drifting towards a hung Assembly, without rigging or tampering. For a fractured mandate, obviously the government will be a coalition one. Suppose your Party has 24 seats, you can’t form the Government; you need coalition partners or parties to reach the magic figure i.e., 31.

At this juncture an Independent MLA will be the blue eyed boy; and he can go anywhere or join any combination. If properly bargained he will be inducted as a Minister.

Coming to the main agenda, if you want to become a Minister, you have to fulfil a few requirements. First you must be a bona fide MLA of the State Assembly. Second, you must be part of the ruling Party or Alliance.

Third, you must have a huge amount of money or you must have the blessing of a Godfather/Mentor . You must be an obsequious sycophant of the leader who is going to become the CM. Last but not the least you must remain alive and remain in the rat race till the end.

At the same time you must be careful about the dangers of disqualification which will remain hanging like the Damocles’ Swords
a) your wrong election affidavit,
b) your undisclosed criminal records
c) your fraudulent election expenditure
d) your pending criminal cases ( coming out of the blues),
e) your changing political affiliation without the required number or Party’s endorsement,
f) Non-disclosure of real spouses ( live-in exempted),
g) Court comes to know about your unsound mind etc.,

Don’t be afraid of Anti-defection law or Office of profit rules. Competent lawyers and brokers will take care as long as you have money or power or both. The Speaker and Raj Bhawan can handle any untoward situation which may jeopardize the Government. When things go out of hand, very competent people from Delhi or from neighbouring States would come and rescue or do the damage control.

So, the key word is to follow the right leader. If you follow the wrong leader you have no chance to become a Minister. To identify the right leader you need the help of political Gurus and Pundits. If your number/ count matters – you may get a respectable political post if not a Ministership. The top priority is numbers.

Without you if the requisite number can be maintained then you may not get any post , even though you are capable and competent. Just pray to the Almighty that the number of the ruling alliance does not go beyond 33/34. If the number is comfortable the chances of getting a political post becomes feeble for the newcomers.

This time if BJP gets 22 and Congress also gets around that figure, they may come together and form a stable Government. No other party will be required. Last time also it was a tacit BJP-Congress Govt – that was quite evident from the very beginning; others like NPF or NPP were just partners. The real coalition was between the Congress MLAs and BJP . It is my personal assessment. Please correct me if I am wrong.

From day one till the end Biren Government was saved umpteen times by the Congress MLAs. . This time too Congress and BJP will easily form the Government – it will be more stable than before. There will be more understanding and more adjustment this time. If you have capable managers they can manage all the issues properly and smoothly.

For winning the election you repeat the same trick; you have just fooled, bribed and bluffed the people. The tragedy is - it has become a vicious cycle. To break it we need giants and fearless leaders.

My humble request to all the intending Ministers is that while developing themselves please do some development work for the people also;
while earning for themselves please earn something for the State too;
while sending their offspring to the best institutions outside ,
please make sure the institutions here also run smoothly for the commoners children;
while going for treatment to the best hospitals in the country or abroad,
please ensure our State hospitals and dispensaries also function properly for the general public;
while conducting recruitment for government jobs merit quota must be there – money quote must be minimized if not scrapped;
while constructing big bungalows for themselves each constituency may be given a shelter home for the aged-people and homeless-poors.

This time there is possibility of creating a new ministry of Ethics and Morality, Independent Charge, to check crime & corruption within – but certainly not a replacement for Lokayukta