Congress pays fitting tributes to Gandhi, Shastri Ibobi flays inordinate delay in holding local body polls

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Oct 2: Former Chief Minister and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Okram Ibobi has lambasted the act of keeping local body elections at bay by the BJP Government and the PR administration for a prolonged period.
The incumbent PR administration is like a BJP Government, said Ibobi and added that even though the BJP Government undertook several campaigns like Go To Hills, Go to Village etc, the PR administration has not been holding elections to local bodies including ADCs for such a long time.
The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) today observed the 156th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and the 121st birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at Congress Bhavan, BT Road here today.
Led by Okram Ibobi, MPCC president K Meghachandra, CWC Member Gaikhangam, MPCC members and Congress workers paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri at the start of the function.  
Speaking at the gathering, former Chief Minister O Ibobi said that the ideology, principle and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi are still relevant not only in Manipur and India but also across the world.
It was Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent movement which compelled the mighty British Empire to free India, he said.
At a time when the whole world is on the brink of a third World War, the ideology and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi are becoming more and more relevant, Ibobi said.
Cleanliness should not be restricted to physical neatness, it is more about purity of mind and thoughts, he said.
One important message of Mahatma Gandhi is that,  India can never be a developed country without development of its rural areas, he remarked.
O Ibobi said that the incumbent PR administration is like a BJP Government.
Even though the BJP Government undertook several campaigns like Go To Hills, Go to Village etc, the PR administration has not been holding elections to local bodies including ADCs for such a long time.
This is totally contradictory to late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s vision of empowering local bodies and developing rural areas, Ibobi said.
The BJP Government  supplanted the duly elected Gram Panchayat and Zilla Parishad members with their own hand-picked individuals.
The aggrieved elected local body Members took the matter to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, the High Court issued a directive to hold local body elections within six months, Ibobi said.
For almost 20 years, no ADC elections were held in the hill districts because some hill leaders were contending that no elections should be held without first granting the Sixth Schedule.
As soon as the Congress Government was formed, joint meetings were held with the hill leaders.
A comparative statement of the powers given to Bodo Territorial Council under Sixth Schedule, Khasi & Jaintia Autonomous District Council under Sixth Schedule, and the powers given to Autonomous District Councils of Manipur was tabled and studied at these meetings together with officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
It turned out that the administrative and financial powers given to ADCs of Manipur were greater than the powers given to autonomous regions of other North Eastern States under the Sixth Schedule, claimed Ibobi.
Subsequently, elections to ADCs were held.
Instead of holding local body elections in time,  the BJP Government has been systematically denying democratic rights of a large number of people.
Given such systematic violation of democratic rights by the BJP Government, the Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi has been undertaking a ‘save Constitution’ campaign both inside Parliament and outside, Ibobi continued.
He also described Lal Bahadur Shastri as a man of principle.