By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 11: HM Shangpliang’s ‘unceremonious’ exit from the saffron party may have come as a surprise to many in the party, but senior BJP leader and Cabinet Minister, AL Hek, appears to be unfazed.
To describe the development, Hek used the phrase ‘Aaya Ram, gaya Ram’. He said that people will come and go when it comes to political parties.
“In a political party, there is always ‘Aaya Ram Gaya Ram’, meaning people keep on coming and going but I am here and I will be here,” Hek said on Monday.
The phrase ‘Aaya Ram Gaya Ram’ implies frequent floor crossing by legislators in the party, which was first used by Haryana MLA Gaya Lai in 1967.
He jumped ships to different political parties thrice in a fortnight; from Congress to United Front and back to Congress and then within nine hours to United Front again.
This incident later became a political joke and developed the culture of defection in Indian politics to create instability among the political parties.
The war of words has intensified between Shangpliang and BJP as the two accuse each other of practising nepotism.
Meanwhile, the state BJP Kisan Morcha president, Justice Syiem also took a swipe at Shangpliang. “The concerned person within a span of last 6 years’ political journey has changed his political ideology for the 4th time till now,” Syiem said.
Refuting the charges of nepotism made by Shangpliang against State BJP president Ernest Mawrie, the BJP Kisan Morcha president said that the party leadership assigns responsibilities on the basis of the functionary’s availability, skills and experience.
“Matilda Kharbuki (Ernest Mawrie’s wife) or even when his cousin brother was assigned responsibilities in the party, the same yardstick was followed so the word nepotism is completely fallacious here,” Syiem said.
On the allegations of political appointments, the BJP Kisan Morcha president said that Shangpliang’s interests leaned towards “political gains” and not the betterment of the public or party ideology.
“Shangpliang just joined last November and were given full logistic support to win the elections. Unfortunately, he failed to do so. Had he been an ideological party man, he would have waited for the time when the party gives responsibility to him,” Syiem said.
According to Syiem, when he approached Shangpliang with the request to provide names for Kisan Morcha’s organisational responsibilities and the proposal to constitute the Kisan Morcha Mandal Mawsynram, the former party leader said he was caught up with government assignments and that he would get back to him. “…he has never delivered anything to the party in 9 months’ journey in BJP,” he asserted.