We are lucky there is an opening called ‘zero hour’ to raise issues in the Parliament. It is also there in the legislative assemblies also. In recent times, the issues of Manipur are being raised by our representatives mostly during the zero hour. Some days back, Maharaja Leishemba Sanajaoba raised the issue of abnormal growth of population in Manipur and the need for implementation of a full-fledged National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur at the earliest during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha.
Leishemba Sanajaoba had been taking maximum advantage of the zero hour in drawing the attention of the Central government on several other issues like development of Manipuri language as one of the classical languages of India, inclusion of Meetei Mayek in Indian currency notes, and inclusion of Meitei/Meetei in the Scheduled Tribe list etc. Now let us try to understand what really is zero hour in parliamentary proceedings.
Zero Hour is the time when Members of Parliament (MPs) can raise Issues of Urgent Public Importance. For raising matters during the Zero Hour, MPs must give the notice before 10 am to the Speaker/ Chairman on the day of the sitting. The notice must state the subject they wish to raise in the House.
However, the Speaker, Lok Sabha/Chairman, Rajya Sabha may allow or decline a Member to raise a matter of importance. The catch here is that, the concerned minister need not give an answer to the issues during zero hour. This opportunity is being used mostly to highlight urgent issues for which enough notice could not be given to the government, state or central to provide an answer. So, there is the need to examine whether the issues raised by MP Leishemba Sanajaoba fall into that category of urgency and limited time for giving notice. We do not think so.
Most of the issues raised by him were demands raised by several CSOs several times over issues of public importance and there was enough time for giving notice for raising the said issues in calling attention motion, short duration discussion, general debates and demand discussion.
We are in the dark whether the Maharaja had tried to find opportunities in other avenues available to put forward issues concerning the state for a detailed discussion or he is stuck in zero hour only. Surely, he is a first time MP and someone must have advised him. Times were when we thought we were indeed lucky that the customary ruler and titular king of Manipur had been picked up by BJP top brass for the lone Rajya Sabha seat. But the way he has been treated by the BJP now is indeed humiliating. Even if he is a first timer, he should have been given ample time to raise issues of the state.
Sadly, he was reportedly told not to participate in debates on the current Manipur violence also. It is not only him but the current Minister of State for External Affairs and Education RK Ranjan also. His home in Imphal had been vandalised and burned by irate mobs twice as he was also among the politicians targeted by mobs for not doing ‘enough’ to protect the valley population during the ethnic riots.
Although he represents the Inner Manipur Parliamentary constituency which covers most parts of the valley, he could do precious little as he had not been given responsibilities either by the Centre or by his party government here. In short, he is helpless. To the utter disappointment of the people of the state, RK Ranjan had not been given an opportunity to take part in a recent parliamentary debate on Manipur unrest along with the Outer Manipur MP Lorho Pfoze. According to the Outer MP his request to participate in the debate was rejected while MoS Ranjan was asked ‘to keep mum’ by the leadership.
