11/5/2007
Is it ceiling problem again or is there something more? The Anti-Defection Law, which ensured a full term for the Okram Ibobi ministry in Manipur, it seems has two cutting edges. If it saved the ministry from falling in the last term, it is now threatening to topple it this time. It will be recalled, dissident movement had become so formidable and the government had seemed almost on the edge of falling in the last quarter of 2003, prompting the chief minister to even resort to skipping the Winter Session of the Assembly to avoid an imminent no-confidence motion, nearly creating a Constitutional crisis. The government was however rescued by the Parliament approving the 91st amendment of the Constitution on December 18, toughening the already existing Anti-Defection Law. Among the clauses that deflated the wind out of the dissidents’ sail that time around was a limit set on the size of the ministry, relieving a huge burden on the shoulders of the head of the government. He then could pass on the buck for his inability to induct everybody into his ministry, to the law. The dissident camp then broke up and never could gather wind for the rest of the term that ended February 2006.
The same law should give the present government, again headed by Ibobi, the same strength and dissidents ought to be rendered as toothless. But not so this time, precisely because the dissidents have cleverly changed strategy. They are no longer threatening to defect, but merely demanding a change of leadership within the same party. The Anti-Defection Law does not have anything to say against such moves.
According to reports, many Congress MLAs who did not make into the ministry this time have headed to New Delhi to camp there and lobby for a change of leadership. Although Ibobi still apparently has the number, he is unlikely to be comfortable in his seat at this moment for a shift in the mood of the Congress central leadership can turn the table easily and leave him without defence. This exactly must be what the dissidents camping in New Delhi must be hoping for too, and their hope hinges on their allegation of non-performance by the government under Ibobi and the ever deteriorating law and order situation. The fact also is, these indeed are charges that Ibobi will find difficult to duck. As of today, not a day passes without somebody getting shot or a government officer abducted. Raids at VIP quarters have also proven beyond doubt the level of penetration of various underground organisations into the core of the establishment; physical infrastructure of the state is crumbling; essential services like water supply are virtually non-existent; most of all, the sense of security of the ordinary citizen is at a nadir.
But the despairing thought is, how good an alternative do we have to the present set of ministers. How much would the putative new set be able to deliver what they are charging the present set is not able to? Would they have any stronger resolve to reclaim and bring back the law and order agenda into government hands? Would they be any different on the question of corruption? More pertinently, is their grievance more about their being left out of the plunder of public money – a crime which has come to be generally treated as an important privilege of those in positions of power, or power brokering. We could be wrong, but we doubt if the motivation of the dissidents has anything to do with any commitment to public cause. This being so, the minute the second set comes to power the first set would automatically become the dissidents. Ding dong bell indeed. But at least one thing is certain. Ibobi can put his patent on a certain and obvious impropriety he has institutionalised. In these times of “one man one post” slogan in the officialdom, he has kept all key posts of the government to himself. He is the chief minister, home minister, finance minister, DP minister, besides holding charges of all other portfolios not distributed to other ministers. These include MAHUD. Isn’t too much power being allowed to be concentrated into a single hand? This can happen only in a tin-pot dictatorship. If the chief minister felt the bad situation made this essential, at least he should have tried to justify it by delivering the goods a good government is supposed to. Maybe the 10th Schedule of the constitution should be amended again to make the anti-defection law forbid any minister holding more than one of any of these key posts.
The Imphal Free Press
Is it ceiling problem again or is there something more? The Anti-Defection Law, which ensured a full term for the Okram Ibobi ministry in Manipur, it seems has two cutting edges. If it saved the ministry from falling in the last term, it is now threatening to topple it this time. It will be recalled, dissident movement had become so formidable and the government had seemed almost on the edge of falling in the last quarter of 2003, prompting the chief minister to even resort to skipping the Winter Session of the Assembly to avoid an imminent no-confidence motion, nearly creating a Constitutional crisis. The government was however rescued by the Parliament approving the 91st amendment of the Constitution on December 18, toughening the already existing Anti-Defection Law. Among the clauses that deflated the wind out of the dissidents’ sail that time around was a limit set on the size of the ministry, relieving a huge burden on the shoulders of the head of the government. He then could pass on the buck for his inability to induct everybody into his ministry, to the law. The dissident camp then broke up and never could gather wind for the rest of the term that ended February 2006.
The same law should give the present government, again headed by Ibobi, the same strength and dissidents ought to be rendered as toothless. But not so this time, precisely because the dissidents have cleverly changed strategy. They are no longer threatening to defect, but merely demanding a change of leadership within the same party. The Anti-Defection Law does not have anything to say against such moves.
According to reports, many Congress MLAs who did not make into the ministry this time have headed to New Delhi to camp there and lobby for a change of leadership. Although Ibobi still apparently has the number, he is unlikely to be comfortable in his seat at this moment for a shift in the mood of the Congress central leadership can turn the table easily and leave him without defence. This exactly must be what the dissidents camping in New Delhi must be hoping for too, and their hope hinges on their allegation of non-performance by the government under Ibobi and the ever deteriorating law and order situation. The fact also is, these indeed are charges that Ibobi will find difficult to duck. As of today, not a day passes without somebody getting shot or a government officer abducted. Raids at VIP quarters have also proven beyond doubt the level of penetration of various underground organisations into the core of the establishment; physical infrastructure of the state is crumbling; essential services like water supply are virtually non-existent; most of all, the sense of security of the ordinary citizen is at a nadir.
But the despairing thought is, how good an alternative do we have to the present set of ministers. How much would the putative new set be able to deliver what they are charging the present set is not able to? Would they have any stronger resolve to reclaim and bring back the law and order agenda into government hands? Would they be any different on the question of corruption? More pertinently, is their grievance more about their being left out of the plunder of public money – a crime which has come to be generally treated as an important privilege of those in positions of power, or power brokering. We could be wrong, but we doubt if the motivation of the dissidents has anything to do with any commitment to public cause. This being so, the minute the second set comes to power the first set would automatically become the dissidents. Ding dong bell indeed. But at least one thing is certain. Ibobi can put his patent on a certain and obvious impropriety he has institutionalised. In these times of “one man one post” slogan in the officialdom, he has kept all key posts of the government to himself. He is the chief minister, home minister, finance minister, DP minister, besides holding charges of all other portfolios not distributed to other ministers. These include MAHUD. Isn’t too much power being allowed to be concentrated into a single hand? This can happen only in a tin-pot dictatorship. If the chief minister felt the bad situation made this essential, at least he should have tried to justify it by delivering the goods a good government is supposed to. Maybe the 10th Schedule of the constitution should be amended again to make the anti-defection law forbid any minister holding more than one of any of these key posts.
The Imphal Free Press
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