Why do people ask a chief minister or the government to resign? We are not talking about such demands being raised by political parties in opposition, but of voices calling for resignation of a chief minister or the entire set of MLAs from among the general population. When one demands the resignation of the chief minister who is also the leader of the government, it means resignation of the government led by him. It would lead to automatic cessation of the government under him including the ministers under him. That much is clear. But they would still be members of the state legislative assembly or say they would remain MLAs.
The resultant effect could be change in leadership or President’s Rule. It could either mean dissolution of the state assembly or keeping it in suspended animation. In such a circumstance, the rights and privileges of the MLAs would be curtailed except that of the Speaker of the assembly. He would remain in place till the assembly is revived again or a new Speaker is elected by the revived assembly or through new assembly elections. Now then, we could move on to why the general population is asking for the resignation of the Chief Minister. As we opined earlier, the general public is clearly disenchanted with the failure of the present government led by Chief Minister N Biren Singh to keep peace or maintain law and order in the state or the way things are being handled.
The general population is really fed up with the lack of resolve and commitment on the part of the Chief Minister and his government besides his patrons in New Delhi with regard to the crisis in the state. Eighteen months is a long time for any ethnic crisis to persist where communities are forcibly divided by imaginary buffers, movement on national and state highways for the warring communities prohibited besides the usual bandhs and blockades, sporadic incidence of violence intermixed with social media hype to keep the pot boiling, and armed militants or militias being given a free run to impose diktats or indulge in unhindered extortion. And now, this matter of six women and children abducted in Jiribam and butchered by Kuki militants. The public has every right to be asking for his resignation. It would not be condoned by acts of condemnation or asking for review of AFSPA in the Imphal valley. Imposing curfew or banning the internet would not cool down the public anger.
Well coming to the matter of resignation of ministers serving under him, one senior minister seems to be trying to mislead the general public by saying that he had asked the Chief Minister to resign twice and since they would automatically cease to be ministers as soon as the CM resigns and that why should he resign first. What about him and other discontented ministers resigning first and putting pressure on the Chief Minister in public interest? It was indeed a lame excuse on his part.
On the other hand, MLAs are trying to evade the issue by saying that there is a need for consensus among the dissenting ones to hand over the resignation letters and almost all of them do not want to be left holding the bag alone. In simple words, they need to be assured that everyone joins the bandwagon. But nobody wants to be the first one to submit the resignation less the others do not follow.
There is also another fear that any 10 or 20 MLAs submitting their resignation might not have any impact on the evolving situation as the remaining MLAs might continue and they would be left in political wilderness. This reasoning is also misplaced as the general public would not do any such act. Even the central high command would be forced to act in such dire circumstances. We know since long, many MLAs in the ruling crowd have been contemplating to resign enmasse and that there are even plans of staging sit-in-protest at Jantar Mantar if their revered leader refuses to meet them or listen to their pleas. In the ultimate analysis, Manipur MLAs have no other option but to resign at least to regain some of their lost prestige or trust with the general public.
