Thinking out of the box ! Wah ! Wah ! Idea of Parliamentary Secretaries
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 11, 2012 -

That necessity is the mother of all invention may just have a rider and to come out with this rider, one has to think out of the box. Chief Minister O Ibobi and company has certainly thought out of the box to legitimately beat the legislation that was passed to put a cap on the size of Ministry and necessity is certainly not the driving force for this 'immensely novel idea' but to pander to bruised egos and soothe frayed nerves.

In other words, far from being a necessity, the idea to appoint Parliamentary Secretaries is nothing but a 'brilliant' idea to accommodate the egos of some of the Congress MLAs who could not make the cut for the chosen 12.

It is amusing to see that the Congress Government is bent on demonstrating that it can come up with 'innovative' ideas, never mind the fact that this innovation has nothing to do with the general welfare of the common people.

Thick skinned that they are, the disapproval by Governor Gurbachan Jagat to the Ordinance passed by the Cabinet to make way for Parliamentary Secretaries will certainly not be treated as a rap on their knuckles.

Rather it will be seen as another opportunity for the Cabinet to huddle together, wrack their brains out and see how the cap on the size of Ministry can be beaten, albeit within the law.

A defining act which would put to shame the best of tax consultants on how to beat system, yet without violating the law. Parliamentary Secretaries may certainly fall within the ambit of the law but it defeats the spirit of the legislation that has put a ceiling on the strength of the Ministry size and this is the message that the Governor has conveyed to the popularly elected Government.

That this message will be neatly sidestepped is a foregone conclusion for principles and conscientious decisions taken with the overall good of the people in mind is anti-thesis to the culture of the political class of Manipur.

Appointing Parliamentary Secretaries will be nothing but yet another expansion of the Ministry though technically and legally it will pass muster. Talk about thinking out of the box and this one surely takes the cake.

A 12 member Council of Ministry is perfectly fine in a 60 member Assembly. Governance has never boiled down to the strength of the Ministry but when governance exists nowhere in the consciousness of the political babus, then this latest move from the stable of the Congress Government should not shock our sensibilities.

In fact if the matter was not so serious, it would have elicited guffaws from the politically and socially conscious section of society. And there are reasons why we say this is serious.

In the order of precedence, Parliamentary Secretaries are at par with Ministers of State. This automatically entails expenditures on the State exchequer. Secondly it would mean another round of 'closed door' meetings to balance the centres of power and we all know what this means.

More VIPS will mean more insulting and degrading experiences for the common people on the congested roads of Imphal, with the siren blasting away and honking horns, just so to give them the right of way.

Did anyone say about noise pollution or the decibel level in Imphal crossing the desirable limit ? This is of no consequences to the political masters who are there to lord over the rot that has come to define the State.

As we had pointed in an earlier editorial, there is no political compulsion of coalition Government to pander to the aspirations of the other partners.

In short it makes absolutely no sense for Parliamentary Secretaries to come up in a small State like Manipur with very poor resources.

The disapproval of the Governor to the Ordinance proposed by the State Cabinet is a rap on the knuckle of the Government, but its real essence and intent will be lost to the political babus like water running off the back of a duck. Trash the Parliamentary Secretaries idea. Get down to the business of governance. Look into the power situation.

Turn your attention towards NH-37 as well as NH-2. Seriously study how the Sadar Hills Districthood issue can be resolved. This is not the time to see how everyone can dig their fingers in the pie and have their share of the spoils.