Silence is golden. The saying, however, cannot be implied when it comes to criticism against government action or otherwise. People of the state, when it comes to burning issues, more often than not witnessed a mute government whenever there is uproar of the general public either for the government inaction to such issues or their exaggerated actions which disturbs the precious tranquility of the much disturbed society. This is a take from the series of recent happenings in the state. First, it was the inexplicable silence of the government to the enactment of a legislation to check the influx of migrants in the state. The government did try to calm down the public uproar by introducing some kind of legislation which does not satisfy the general public. The follow up action of the people demanding an effective legislation to safeguard the indigenous people of the state has been somehow dumped by remaining silent on the matter. The studied silence over the demand for repeal of AFSPA is also worth mentioning. Even the then Home Minister and congress leader P. Chidambaram had now spoken about the inhumane nature of the act but the state government does not speak a single word regarding this.
Recently, there is much criticism regarding the disqualification of three Trinamool Congress MLAs. Supporters of the disqualified MLAs have even burnt effigies of the Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly and the Chief Minister of Manipur putting the blame to them. They even justified the move by saying that the speaker of the state assembly secretariat had interfered in the internal matter of the party. On the other hand, even some of the Imphal based media expressed their opinions stating that the decision of the speaker to disqualify the MLAs are against the anti defection law which is completely wrong as the supporting document/article mentioned in the anti defection law stands void after the amendment of the constitution.
We don’t have any right to criticize the opinions of others, but the more pressing concern here is why the state government or the state assembly does not have the gut to release a statement which proves their action as legitimate. Why can’t they counter the allegations by BJP when they said that the disqualification of the MLAs can be challenged in the law court, when the provision in the anti defection law clearly stated that the speaker’s tribunal could not be challenged in High Court.
The silence on the part of the government definitely proves that there is a conspiracy in every move they are going through. If not so, then why are they still quite when there is a war of words being imposed upon them?
