NEW DELHI: India’s so called democracy has sunk deeper into a veritable mockery when Manipur state Assembly selected Speaker, Dr.Borobabu Singh, was brought by a posse of armed forces on Tuesday to be produced before the supreme court in a contempt of court proceeding against him. Five Ambassador Cars belonging to the Indian security forces formed a ring of security to force the Speaker to appear before the court. He was brought from the Manipur Bhavan. Attired in black as a mark of his protest, the Speaker met his lawyers K.K.Venugopal and S.K.Bhattacharjee and later appeared before a five member court bench with chief justice M.N.Venkalachalliah presiding. Singh had resisted pressure from the court and the Indian government for months for appearing before the Supreme Court. But finally the court’s will was allowed to prevail and he was forcibly brought from Manipur by India’s security forces. In a statement later the Assembly Speaker said that his appearance was not voluntary. “Considerable force against me was used and not the minimum force as the court had desired,” he said. He had tried his utmost to uphold the dignity and prestige of the legislature but he did not succeed, it was a black day for legislature and democracy. The Speaker said that he had been in contact with several state assembly speakers but no one gave an effective help although some said they would intervene in the court.

Y.Yaima Singh M.P. wondered as to why the Manipur Assembly Speaker had been singled out for such treatment when in a similar situation the Tamilnadu Assembly speaker had not been made to appear before the court. Is it because Manipur is a small state in the northeast, he asked, “This is the blackest day in the history of Indian parliament.”

The Speaker said that he had been airlifted from Imphal on March 20 and placed under detention and “it was very difficult to resist the security around me,” When his advocate told the court that it was a black day for Indian democracy, the chief justice said: “It is white day in the history of Indian judiciary.”

 

Article extracted from this publication >>    March 26, 1993