The NPP State President and Rajya Sabha member who has so far not raised a single question in the Upper House since his oath taking in September 2020, has yet again taken a swipe at the Congress. He has done it in the past and will perhaps continue his tirade. Such behaviour reeks of petty politics and shows a lack of understanding of how parliamentary democracy works. As the NPP State President, it is the brief of WR Kharlukhi not to mock the Opposition for pointing to the poor governance demonstrated by the MDA Government but to take stock of the rapidly degenerating situation and get his Party to get its act together. On Wednesday the effigies of the State Chief Minister, his Deputy and the Home Minister and also of the police chief and the two police officials that ordered the shooting of Cherister Thangkhiew, the former general secretary of the outlawed HNLC, on Friday 13 August, were burnt by a crowd at Mawlai. All Covid protocols were violated thereby proving yet again that the application of the rule of law is arbitrary and subjective.
The Congress Party as the main Opposition party is duty bound to point out the lapses of the ruling party and those lapses are far too many to be listed. The 17 MLA of the Congress are representing their constituents. They are not speaking for themselves. So, in mocking the Congress, the NPP State President is also being contemptuous of the electorate that voted these MLAs. As a Rajya Sabha member it is rather unfortunate that Kharlukhi does not even understand these basic principles of democracy. The Congress has the locus-standi to take the Government to task and no one can fault them for that. They are performing a public duty for which they would have to give an account to their constituents, come election time. Democracy is successful only to the extent that the Opposition party/parties keep the excesses of the ruling government in check. Otherwise, we would have runaway democracy where legislations would be bulldozed by the ruling party without being discussed and debated in the State Assembly or in Parliament. The opposition parties have the right to audit the government’s spending and to talk to the media about the government’s lapses. The NPP did a lot of that when it was in the Opposition and no one mocked it for doing so because it was discharging its duty. Hence to belittle the Opposition constantly, merely because it is performing its duty shows that the NPP leadership is politically immature.
