Upward tick of body bags : Too many have died
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 05, 2023 -

Too many people have died.

Too many have lost their near and dear ones and while those who lay down their lives for the cause of the motherland will be remembered as martyrs and heroes and heroines of the land, those who have died in the madness that started from the evening of May 3 will just be figures added to the death tally and even as this is being penned down, the upward tick in the number of body bags continues.

So it is that the woman, the child who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and were bludgeoned to death will just be another figure to be added to the death tally and this is all that Manipur will have to show to the world of human beings at the end of the day or when the bloody carnage blows over.

This story cuts both ways and while one group of people lord over the valley area, it is the gun toting, bandana clad highwaymen from the other group who will open fire at the settlements at the foothills and burn down the houses and whatever little the villagers had stored up for the year.

Manipur has been in this bloody madness for ever 30 days now and with the Government, both Imphal ad Delhi, groping in the dark not knowing what should be done it should not be forgotten that over 80 percent of the men and women and children killed is this madness had nothing to do with the Churachandpur rally, the arson at Torbung, the clash at different places all over Manipur and those flexing their muscles and gun power on their self ‘domain’.

Five or ten years down the line, when the international community gets hold of the real story that is being scripted on the soil of Manipur, who stands to gain ?

No one, except the gun toting, bandana adorned gunmen who have nothing in common with the soil of the land and this is a point that should not be lost on anyone.

In an ostensible act of giving more muscle to the banner raised by the ‘gun toting foreigners,’ ten Kuki-Chin MLAs have been ‘persuaded’ to raise the call for a separate administration and this is where all sons of the soil should realise how far the hands of these aliens can reach.

And to realise this and tell this story to the comity of Nations, it becomes incumbent for all sons of the soil to be in a position to tell who is the nemesis and who is not.

Views blinded by mad anger will serve no purpose.

And it is against the backdrop of this reality that the ‘invite’ to ten Naga MLAs by Union Home Minister Amit Shah should be understood.

Not once in the 24 years since The Sangai Express has been in print that it has seen such an ‘invite’ from New Delhi sent to MLAs of a particular community and this is what makes it not only strange but also oddly interesting.

At the moment it is not yet very clear on why the said MLAs have been asked to come to New Delhi, but as a well placed source informed The Sangai Express on June 3 evening, the ‘invite’ should be seen against the separate administration call raised by the Kuki-Chin MLAs.

This line sounds convincing for remember, out of the 10 Kuki-Chin MLAs who have raised the demand include at least three from Kangpokpi district, falling under the Assembly Constituencies of Kangpokpi, Saikul and Saitu.

Will the Centre consider the demand of the 10 Kuki-Chin MLAs against this reality is the question that follows ?

Remember the three months long blockade imposed by the United Naga Council, when the then Congress Government under Chief Minister O Ibobi upgraded Kangpokpi to the status of a full fledged district in the winter of 2016.

The blockade was called off only after the BJP came to power at Imphal, but the tripartite talks involving the UNC, the State Government and the Centre over the district creation issue is yet to come to a final conclusion.

It is against this backdrop that the 10 Naga MLAs have been invited to Delhi and the developments thereof can decide the direction towards which Manipur is headed.