|
From the underlying tension of court rooms to the hallowed
chamber of the state assembly- Ratan Lal Nath has traversed a
long way. A young lawyer surviving on argumentative skills in
court, Nath had entered the assembly as a Congress MLA a decade
and half ago in 1993. But since then there has been no looking
back for Nath who is now leader of the opposition and the Man to
Watch in state politics. With his sound knowledge of
proceedings, debating skill and flair for investigation, the
diminutive Leader of the Opposition has set new standards of
excellence in legislative discourse. Mr. Nath took time off his
hectic pre-election schedule to share his thoughts and ideas in
regard to the upcoming assembly polls in Tripura with
tripurainfo.com in this
Exclusive interview
:
Question : What are the major issues in the upcoming
election, issues that your party will highlight in the campaign?
Answer : As far as Congress or the opposition is
concerned the main issues in the upcoming assembly polls are
unprecedented corruption, rank misrule, shameful nepotism and
all round failure of the left front government . The chief
minister Mr Manik Sarkar presides over a government, which is
corrupt to the bone from top to bottom and anti-people to say
the least. Tripura lead the rest of the states in the country in
terms of crimes against women and even in suicide rates it tops
the list. This happens because of the failure of the government
and excesses committed by the ruling left front. That the old
adage-'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'-is
true to the letter is borne out by the track record of the left
front in Tripura. We are going to highlight these issues in the
campaign for the polls and mobilize public opinion against them.
Besides, there is one more crucial issue that relates to misuse
and diversion of central funds. Tripura has been showered with
huge central funds ever since the UPA government assumed power
but the left front government here have diverted and directly
siphoned off large chunks of funds to serve the partisan
interests of CPI (M). Most of the CPI (M) leaders have
accumulated huge wealth, totally disproportionate to their known
sources of income over the past decade. This will come up as a
big issue in the campaign for the elections also.
Question : The left front have been campaigning
against Congress's alliance with INPT, describing the regional
party as 'Mask of Militants'. What is your reaction to this?
Answer : The CPI (M) launched this campaign before the
2003 assembly polls and they are repeating it now simply because
they are scared, scared of a sound thrashing in the tribal
reserve assembly constituencies . The INPT is a political party,
registered with the election commission and the government is
free to book any INPT or Congress leader suspected to be in
league with banned militants. But the CPI (M) never go for any
legal measure because in their heart of hearts they know they
are making a false, baseless and malicious allegation only to
hoodwink the people and divert their attention from the left
front's colossal failure to address genuine grievances of the
tribals. Their second purpose behind this mischievous campaign
is to appease the voters of majority community and generate
anti-tribal sentiments in their minds by creating an unhealthy
polarisation. The media here should know that none other than
the chief minister himself asserted in the state assembly in
reply to a query that his government do not have any evidence or
record showing any link of any political leader in the state
with banned rebel outfits. What does it prove? The harsh reality
is that the tribal electorate of the state has been waiting for
an opportunity to teach the left front a lesson for their
politics of vote bank and the lesson will be imparted soon.
Question : But Congress is in alliance with a party of which
Bijay Kumar Hrangkhawal , a former rebel leader, is the
president . How do you justify that ?
Answer : What is wrong with that ? If Bijay Kumar
Hrangkhawal was a rebel leader, so was Khagendra Jamatya , a
cabinet minister in the left front government and so was slain
Binanda Jamatya , a former vice president of CPI (M)'s tribal
front Gana Mukti Parishad (GMP). Hrangkhawal with his TNV outfit
had returned to the national mainstream two decades ago in
August 1988 by signing a peace accord and by reposing his
complete faith in the Indian state and constitution. It was a
full decade later in 1998 that we had forged an alliance with a
political formation that included Hrangkhawal. But Khagendra
Jamatya , a former ATPLO militant has been adorning the left
front ministry as a star for over a decade now . Binanda Jamatya
, ATPLO supremo, had surrendered in July 1983 and was at once
co-opted into the central committee of GMP as a vice president.
Please tell CPI (M) leaders to justify this before you ask me .
Actually the CPI (M) is the fountain-spring of terrorism and
militancy not only in Tripura but in the rest of India. They had
fought against the infant Indian state during 1948-1952 by
declaring a formal war on it and hundreds of innocent people in
many places including Tripura had fallen to the communist's
blood lust during this period. One of their former chief
ministers and politburo members, Nripen Chakraborty, had
observed in an interview with the media, 'had I been a tribal I
would also have been an extremist', giving a moral legitimacy to
what the militants under TNV banner had been committing. When
they were out of power during 1988-1993 the Marxists had
launched the ATTF militant outfit with cadres of GMP and other
tribal-based organizations to destabilise the Congress-TUJS
coalition government. This is on record and do you need any more
proof to say which party created extremism in Tripura as part of
a 'divide and rule' policy and which party nurtures it?
Question : What will be the priorities in case
Congress is able to form the next government by winning the next
assembly elections in alliance with INPT? Your PCC president
said that there would be a 'Job Fair' in the event of a Congress
government coming to power ?
Answer : Why 'in case', we are going to form the next
government in Tripura by winning at least 34 out of 60 assembly
seats, if not more. It is only a matter of a month before you
see a Congress-INPT coalition government in the state. The
people of the state know this and so do the CPI (M) led left
front. That is why they are so desperate and delirious now. As
for priorities I can say that our foremost priority will be to
create more employment opportunities at all levels.
To begin with, all the vacant posts in the administration will
be filled up through recruitment of employees with full
pay-scales and a planned attempt will be made to expand
government services so that employment opportunities expand. But
with such a high rate of unemployment, recruitment to government
services alone will not solve the problem. Hence we will
encourage private investments with incentives for
industrialisation so that the private sector also emerges as a
major source of employment in Tripura. Apart from this, we will
facilitate the sanction of bank loans for youths to create
appropriate conditions for self-employment by making the
government a guarantor for repayment of loans. New poverty
alleviation schemes will be framed and implemented in rural and
hilly areas for eradication of poverty and the scope of existing
schemes will be expanded. There will be no corruption or
nepotism in the implementation of schemes and projects.
Moreover, the finest possible infrastructure in all spheres will
be created to facilitate all-round development. Regarding the
second part of your question I can only say that I would not
react to what the PCC president said because I do not know the
context in which the statement had been made.
Question : How do you expect to win the polls with so much of
disunity and squabbles in your ranks against an organised force
like the left front? Who will you project as chief minister and
who can match the clean image of Manik Sarkar ?
Answer : The so-called disunity and squabbles in ranks
you refer to have always been there in Congress since the
party's birth but this has not deterred Congress from winning
elections. Our party's structure is different : ours is an open,
democratic party where we encourage debate and even open
expression of dissent is tolerated up to a considerable extent.
Unlike CPI (M) which is 'an exclusivist party under perennial
martial law' we are open and transparent and that is why you
find so much to write about or comment on in regard to our
party. But when it comes to fighting the enemy we achieve the
greatest possible unity and it is just waiting to happen this
time. The left front is an 'organised force' of cadres but our
organisation is based on overwhelming mass support which will
ensure our victory in the polls. Our chief minister will be
elected by the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) after the
elections and there is no need to project any individual leader
as chief minister. To the last part of your question my response
is : you are free to hold anyone in high esteem, I have no
quarrel with that. The performance of a chief minister can not
be judged in isolation from the performance of his government
and going by what happened during Manik Sarkar's decade long
stint as chief minister, the people of the state look upon him
as an unjustifiably proud man who carries on martial law within
his party and quasi-fascist governance marked by corruption in
the state. He is the chief patron of all corruption,
misgovernance and incompetence in the administration and will
pay for it soon very dearly ..
|
