Owning moral responsibility!! Turmoil within the Congress
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 30 2019 -

Owning moral responsibility.

This is the official line laid down by the Congress MLAs who have decided to resign from their respective posts within the party's hierarchy.

That the 'moral responsibility' part will be taken with a pinch of salt by the people is a given and looking at the political reality, it has not come as much of a surprise either.

It was not without a reason, why The Sangai Express had sounded the word of caution for the State Congress leaders to ponder on, for chances of many of its herds abandoning the 'sinking ship' could not be written off at all.

Not yet quit the party, and the key words here are 'not yet.'

The question then is when?

This may not exactly be the Waterloo for the oldest political party in the country, but it is pathetic to see the Congress in its present state, with its leaders failing to read the reality and keep its flocks together.

The Congress in Manipur did not do bad at the Assembly hustings in 2017, emerging as the single largest political party with 28 MLAs.

What it however failed to read was that Delhi was under the BJP and that any party in power in Delhi can turn the tide in its favour has been proved more than once and it is due to this reality that the State saw the end to the 15 years rule of the Congress here.

That eight out of the 28 MLAs elected on the Congress ticket are today supping with the BJP will surely prove to be the guiding light for more party hopping from the Congress MLAs and the latest decision of the ten Congress MLAs to resign from their posts in the party may be seen along this line.

The party has no one to blame but itself, for if it is unable to keep the flock together in times of crisis then serious questions may be asked on how the party has been functioning all these years.

Ironic it is but while the ten Congress MLAs have resigned citing moral responsibility, the same party is standing stiffly against the decision of Congress president, Rahul Gandhi to step down after the Lok Sabha elections debacle.

The results of the Lok Sabha elections is ample testimony that India has moved beyond the stage when the country is equated with the fortunes or misfortunes of a single family.

It is a Republic and there is no way a Republic can be run and managed in the name of a single family, is the message that the voters have rung out in the just held Lok Sabha elections.

So ten Congress MLAs have had the gumption and the conviction to own moral responsibility for the defeat of the Congress candidates in the just held Lok Sabha elections here, but is resigning from their posts the answer to the misfortune dogging the party presently ?

Not surprising that many have read the latest development as the first step towards the saffron party.

Unfortunate it is but the death knell of the party is being sounded from within and not from any political moves initiated by the BJP.

Congress Mukt may be the slogan of the BJP and NEDA, but it is the Congressmen who are working overtime to ensure that this becomes a reality in Manipur, at least.

Remember the time when only one Congress MLA sat on the Opposition bench in the person of the late Rishang Keishing?

Also remember what happened after the then minority Government led by Radhabinod Koijam was toppled and the State had a spell of President's Rule ?

Can anyone forget the recent history of Manipur?