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A languid afternoon in the soothing comfort of air-conditioned
'Prajna Bhawan' auditorium, two days ahead of the 'Ides of May',
found union minister Manishankar Ayer in hilarious mood, ready
to rid himself of the pent-up tension of the two day NEC
plenary-2008. With media-persons waiting as wistfully as
footballers on reserve bench during a match for a chatty
session, the ministerial monologue soon gave way to a dialogue .
Manishankar reminisced his days as AICC general
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Barman : Empty
hand in the air ! |
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secretary in charge of Tripura and pat came the comment : I have
been associated with Congress in Tripura or whatever is left of
it now. The media-persons laughed approvingly but were at a loss
to make out whether the smile lacing the comment meant sneer or
jeer. Known for his careful choice of words and accents in
English, Manishankar spoke on at length, painting a rosy
futuristic picture of Northeast, to considerable consternation
of journalists saddled with early deadlines but the session took
one and half hour to finally close.
Outside the cool confines of 'Prajna Bhawan' the torrid summer
heat worsened by high humidity greeted journalists but the
minister's candid and unedifying comment lingered in memory. The
proponents of disastrous 'Mission-2008' were nowhere near to
take notice; nor did they venture to ritually receive or see off
the party’s minister at the airport.
While Ayer’s comment made no ripple in the present state of
hibernation to which Congress has descended in the wake of the
much-vaunted Mission’s collapse , partymen as well as political
observers continue to debate the pros and cons of the minister’s
observation. But was Ayer too far off the mark when he chose to
be frank on a public platform? Not quite. The Missionaries in
their misguided enthusiasm to grab the loaves and fishes of
power had sought to convert the last assembly polls into a
referendum on the five year track-record of the left front and
only managed to lie prostrate with bloodied nose.
A flashback to a comic interlude in the run-up to the grim
electoral battle is relevant to our current theme. Apart from
the cacophony over ‘Mission-2008’, over-enthusiastic party
leaders including the paratroopers from Delhi had been
predicting
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CPM
spokesman Gautam Das radiates confidence |
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‘comfortable majority’ for the party. It was on
February 13 when a group of journalists waiting for Pranab Mookherjee’s briefing in Congress Bhawan had a tete-tete with
Kurta-pyjama clad Sanjay Baffna on the veranda in front of the
Bhawan .
Bristling with confidence Baffna effusively explained
how Congress would clinch power and how even chief minister
Manik Sarkar stood in very real danger of losing his seat. The
seniors among the journalists, showered with Baffna’s gems and
pearls of wisdom, quietly said ‘ok we will know what is what
only on March 7’. On that crucial date Baffna had air-dashed to
Agartala by Indigo flight in the morning only to return
crestfallen and unnoticed by Jet airlines flight in the evening
. ‘It seems I was seriously misled by state leaders’ Baffna had
confided to an acquaintance before departing from the state.
It is, however, the aftermath of the polls that brought into sharp
focus the level of bankruptcy and self-deception to which
Congress in the state has descended. A funerary air cast a spell
over Congressmen across the state following the declaration of
results but there was no soul-searching or introspection as
should normally have happened.
The Missionaries ostensibly went for an investigation and came
out with their startling findings on May 2 when they announced
loud and clear in a media-conference in the Congress Bhawan that
EVMs purchased by the Election Commission
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Pensive
Manishankar in quizzical mood |
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from central public
sector undertaking Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL)
and made available to the state election department had been
manipulated in exchange for a work order worth Rs 14 crore
without tender awarded to the Corporation by chief electoral
officer G.S.G.Ayengar. Agonizing over the Rs 14 crore contract
without tender, rather than the electoral rout, seemed to be
more tangible.
The glaring anomalies in the translated
version of the EC’s own finding on the EVMs with the original
document remained unexplained as did the crucial question on how
Congress secured ten seats including the unexpected one in
Kamalpur and fractionally more votes than the tally of 2003.
Party MLA Surajit Dutta banked on statistical anomalies in
compilation of results to claim that the poll outcome had not
reflected the public opinion-that too in a media-conference in
his residence on May 11. Taking possibly a cue from the big
brother, INPT now has toed the same line on EVMs and opposed
induction of the machines for any election in future.
At a time when the opposition in Tripura need political oxygen,
the ongoing exercise in self-deception can only aggravate
their respiratory ailments. But it is possibly too much to expect that
old habits will die soft here to give way to introspection and
honest analysis of the poll outcome. Despite the diminution in
strength state Congress leadership is neck-deep in ‘inner
struggle’ over the posts of leader of the opposition, PCC
president and possibly more. The ‘Mission-2008’ has proved to be
disastrous and the writing on the political wall is clear and
emphatic : now it is Mission-2058 –at the very least !
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