Pradyot Manikya, Sushmita Dev, & RK Imo Singh on ‘Polarization’ – Here’s what they said

Sushmita Dev from Assam, a long-time Congresswoman who recently defected to the Trinamool Congress, at the India Today Conclave - East said “polarization is the harsh reality of Indian politics today.”

Asked about the charges of polarization against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), RK Imo Singh professed ‘polarization towards performance’ as the party’s agenda.

“You want to do well in life. You want to get good marks. Similarly, if you are a sportsperson, you want to be the best, you want to perform. Similarly, if you are a doctor or engineer. It’s the same for politics also – we all want to perform.”

Singh also mused that “perhaps performance is the most important” parameter when it comes to winning elections.
TIPRA Motha chairman Pradyot Manikya Deb Barma, opining on Northeast Indian politics, said: “There is a sense of insecurity among the local population – which is largely the indigenous population – that they will be flooded with people from outside. So when, a Government of India comes out with certain Bills – which says that we will protect you or we will protect your interests, they are also playing to a polarization card.”

The royal scion further opined that “if the BJP really wants to protect the people, then they should constitutionally bring in amendments rather than playing into the threat perception that across the border there are many people and they will come in and submerge.”

Imo Singh, weighing in on the issue, praised the BJP-led government’s granting of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Manipur. Manikya, on the other hand, lamented that ILP has not been implemented in a single state which shares borders with Bangladesh.

“You can’t pick and choose states. If you want to bring a law, bring it in totality. Don’t pick and choose in states where your votes get affected,” he said.

Weighing in on the BJP’s emphasis on development, Sushmita Dev said that the BJP has definitely done a better PR exercise of the work they’ve done in comparison to other parties.

Dev also emphasized that the only way to hold Northeast India together is by “stability and integrity.”
The MP also pointed to the recent Chinese incursions across the Arunachal border as a sign of instability at the border.

Countering her, Singh said: “I won’t deny it. It has been happening on and off. But it does not mean India has gone backward.”

Manikya asked whether he is more inclined toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi ahead of the polls in Tripura next year, said: “My politics is not dependent on what BJP is doing or what Congress is doing. We are here to actually bring in a certain Constitutional solution to our demand of Greater Tipraland.”