‘Survival of the Un-fittest’

Spokesperson: Dr. Abhishek M Singhvi, Shri Gaikhangam, Shri OkramIbobi Singh and Shri GovindasKonthoujam: Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi said. We are very happy to have on the podium here with us, apart from our members of the department, the Hon’ble former CM of Manipur and now the CLP leader Mr. OkramIbobi Singh, the member of the CWC from that state Mr. Gaikhangam and the PCC President Mr. Govind Das and of course, I am sorry, I forgot to mention, large number of my esteemed MLAs from the Congress Party from Manipur are here. My fault, I did not mention them earlier. This is because; we are carrying a sorry, sad, sordid tale, which intersects on four points.

  1. Deliberate delays - conscious, deliberate, unconstitutional delays.
  2. Distortion of democracy by creation of artificial majorities.
  3. Abdication of Raj Dharma.
  4. The naked brandishing of inducements. And all these four intersects from tiny state, north–eastern state of Manipur, which is why, my friends and the MLAs are here. You must rewind to 2017, where a clear Congress majority was born in that state. In the same month of March2017, a clear 28 MLA majority by allurement, by ‘Kharid-Farokht’, by purchase and sell, by nefarious, dirty activities in which it appears the BJP has acquired a PhD, this was reduced an artificial minority and the BJP made a Government in March2017. Immediately after making the Government, it rewarded those very defecting MLAs with Parliamentary Secretary posts. They did not last too long, they were removed after 6-7-8 months, because they realized that these posts are illegal.

A petition was filed in the Manipur High Court, which ultimately following the Supreme Court judgment, held that the Manipur law, the state law of 2012 under which these persons were appointed was stuck down, was bad in law, was void. Immediately after that under our constitutional provisions, especially articles, 190,191,192, these articles are important, friends, because they provide that a person, who has held, is holding, held in the past or continue to hold any office of profit stands disqualified.

Now, clearly, Parliamentary or Assembly Secretaries hold office of profit that is well-established rule. So, although they ceased to be Parliamentary Secretaries, they had incurred the disqualification in 2017 itself. The procedure, however, is that a complaint has to be made to the Governor, who has to seek the opinion of the Election Commission and then on that opinion declare the MLAs qualified or disqualified. Now, even after the September 2020 Judgment of the High Court, which is no doubt under appeal now in the Supreme Court, butthere is no stay, no order yet, after 5-1/2 months. First, the Hon’ble Governor did not take a decision for a long time, then the Hon’ble Election Commission did not take a decision and now I am informed by a friend from Manipur that possibly a report from the EC has gone to the Governor, I am certainly not privy to that report and now again, I have no doubt that there will be further delay. So, those persons, who are clearly disqualified on account of office of profit disqualification, will continue to enjoy the loaves and fishes of office; unconstitutionally and illegally. The benefits will be reaped by a particular party of a particular colour. As it has been said- ‘Indecision and delays are the parents of failure’ and the declining of institution is showing the ‘Survival of the Un-fittest’. We are here to shake the conscious of the country through you and that is why, my friends are here also. Tuesday, 2 March, 2021