(Disclaimer: Views on the silence of the 8 defector MLAs from Congress to BJP pertain to their public silence outside the Assembly and have no reference to anything said in the House or a comment on any of their actions, or otherwise, in the House)
In the backdrop of Opposition MLAs in Goa getting suspended for creating a “ruckus” in Manipur, let us look that the public position of the 8 ex-Congress MLAs who took oath in public places that they would never defect, but did exactly that, one of them even going to the extent of saying that we had God’s permission to do so. Everyone’s favourite excuse for betraying their mandate was “development”. Yes according to them, this U-turn was for the development of their country and their homes.
It is now up to them and those who voted for them to answer or show the ‘development’ in their constituencies for their people. But this “development lobby” of visionary MLAs chose not to speak a single word on the ‘silence on Manipur’ by those who should have spoken, to tame the burning fires of Manipur.
Why have these MLAs not spoken on the painful silence?
Did they not hear the cry of the husband of the woman who was defiled, molested, raped and crying that as an army man, he fought for the country but could protect his wife? Did their hearts not bleed for those in relief camps, their lives finished, their families destroyed and their lives under threat with their opponents moving around with arms stolen from the police? Did they not feel their fear to even step out of their homes?
Are they, not fathers or grandfathers? Don’t they have daughters?
Couldn’t any of these elected leaders take time from their busy schedules to just land up at any of the solidarity meets in Panjim & Margao on Manipur, to, at the very least, light a candle and simply say that “today I’m not a ruling MLA, I’m not a corporation Chairperson, I’m not a minister in waiting but a fellow Indian whose heart bleeds for Manipuris?”
Perhaps they took this call for Manipur’s “development” just like they did for Goa’s “development”. This word has so many meanings and connotations which are best understood by those who defected and by those who voted and continue to support them and those who have not asked them a single question after they have betrayed the mandate.
In the deathly silence that hangs in the air in Manipur, even a teardrop or a stifled cry can be heard. One hopes that each time “development lobby” elected representatives hear the sounds of sorrow, they ask their conscience what the “development” which they ran after really meant. Or was it worth it?
