What goes around comes around. This must be the received wisdom of practically every society, for the saying is prevalent with some variations in practically all of them. In Hinduism and Buddhism, and indeed most other eastern religions, this is a most pronounced belief. Everybody`™s life is a consequence of his deeds of the past, or Karma as this cause and effect phenomenon of life is described in one word in these two religions. Karma ensures nobody escapes the consequences of his deeds, good or bad. The same belief is there in other belief systems too, even the most agnostic. Therefore, there is an undeclared faith everywhere that `as you sow, so shall you reap`™. Come to think of it, this is not just about religion or any faith in a divine order. The entire edifice on which scientific enquiry rests is built around this axiom. Newton`™s third law of inertia says very much the same thing: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If this law was not true, Robert H. Goddard`™s theory of rocket propulsion would have been redundant, as American newspapers mockingly reported his achievement in 1926. No space travel would have been possible, and that would have been boring. Imagine no `Star Wars`™ or `Star Trek`™. But on the other hand, there would also have been no ballistic missiles or indeed the explosive energy that drives bullets either. This would have been an interesting situation, for then even the dreaded Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA, would have been toothless, and equally, the chattering classes who bare their fangs and let out terrifying roars every time the word AFSPA is mentioned, would have left with only mews and purrs.
In politics too this principle is proving equally applicable, as the state BJP president, Thounaojam Chaoba Singh is finding out the hard way. From all indications, his past is now catching up with him. The news report of a press conference by ex-minister and Communist Party of India MLA, Ningthoujam Mangi, which appeared in many newspapers yesterday, ostensibly timed to coincide with the arrival of the BJP national president Amit Shah in the state, demonstrated this. The report said the High Court of Manipur has on the previous day disapproved the bid to transfer land to a bogus housing society Kombirei Housing Co-operative Society Limited in 1996, when Chaoba was the revenue minister. The report said Mangi himself had at the time taken the lead role in opposing the land transfer move, and that he discovered most of the beneficiaries of the land transfer were close relatives of Chaoba. While Chaoba was in power, nobody could do much, but two decades later, the issue has returned to haunt the man and his ambition. It remains to be seen what Chaoba does to defend and save himself from a fall from grace, or more pertinently, what the BJP central leadership does on the matter, for a lot of the stake of the BJP in the state will now depends on the nature of these actions. The question is, would Chaoba be purged or else would he be allowed to continue to lead the BJP`™s battle in the upcoming ADC election and the Assembly election in 2017?
While it is entirely up to the BJP to decide on what course of action it takes on the matter, what comes across as amazing is the brazen manner in which Chaoba was hurling corruption charges on his opponents, in this case, the leaders of the ruling Congress. Didn`™t he believe in the wisdom that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones, for one return stone can shatter his own house too? The charges he has been making all the while were probably all true for it is almost a thumb rule today in Manipur that all those who have had a taste of power have invariably been made corrupt. Politics and corruption have today become almost synonymous. As somebody who has been on the other side of the power divide, would it not have been prudent for him to have been a little more restrained in his allegations? But this is a free country and everybody is free to make his own decisions. We as laymen however can only await justice, karmic or legal or electoral. Yes, we also eagerly await the day politics in the land is dissociated from corruption, and instead comes to be identified with statesmanship.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam
