Anarchy under a sea of normalcy : Scripting our own epitapth
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 04 , 2014 -

Anarchy. At the moment, Manipur seems to be sailing smoothly, but peel away one or two of the top layers and one will surely see and understand the anarchic situation that Manipur finds itself in today.

Conflicting interests between different communities or ethnic groups, a society sans any conscience, a corrupt, inefficient and lethargic political class perfectly complemented by an equally incompetent bureaucracy make for a cocktail that is Manipur today.

Kuki State, Nagalim, Alternative Arrangement for the Nagas of Manipur pending a solution to the ongoing talks between the IM faction of the NSCN and the Government of India are all manifestations of competing forces tearing into the social fabric of Manipur.

On the other hand, there is the majority community, the Meiteis who have been strongly standing by the geo-political entity called Manipur and trumping the card of ‘we are all one’ but yet continue to view the others with a condescending attitude coupled with suspicion of every move that the hill people make.

At one level these differences may be seen as political issues, which should be dealt with politically, but no one can deny the fact that these issues have impacted on the social and emotional ties or relationships between the people.

When political issues seep into the social realm then it is time to sincerely study oneself.

So while the people of Manipur have had to live and survive the pressure of pull and push, which are political in nature, society on the other hand as a whole appears to have lost its conscience.

Just a look at the State newspapers in the last few days should convey the message that is sought to be made here.

Murders, growing crimes against women and children, minor girls being molested and raped and even killed and the list goes on.

Top this off with the increasing trend of the people morphing into a mob and taking the law into their own hands to punish the accused by way of demolishing their houses and banishing the entire family of the accused from the locality.

A reflection of a society whose sense of justice has got lost in the maze of the all round ills surrounding the people and the State as well as an indicator that the people by and large have lost faith in the Government to deliver justice.

This is also borne by the numerous Wakatchabas (Appeals) that appear in the Imphal based newspapers.

Everything that can go wrong have gone wrong and everything that can go right also appear to have gone wrong. Finger pointing is not the answer, for it is the collective conduct of the people which has plunged the State into the abyss that we see now.

It takes two hands to clap. Corruption cannot be a one way affair. There has to be a taker and a giver.

Poor governance is a result of the choice made by the people come election time. There can be no rights without responsibility.

It may sound mundane but there no denying the fact that the traffic chaos and confusion that one witnesses on the roads of Imphal has as much to do with the incompetency of the people in charge of traffic regulation as with lack of traffic sense amongst the people, be they motorists or pedestrians.

Power supply is pathetic.

This is a truism and everyone complains about it.

But are the citizens or power consumers doing their bit, such as paying their power tariff regularly ?

The unauthorised connections seen on the HT lines in any of the lanes and by lanes of Imphal and other places tell a significant story.

Scripting our own epitaph, that is what the people of Manipur have been doing all these years and adding to the tragedy is the point that no one seems ready to acknowledge this.

Has anyone really taken the pain and the efforts to study why and how the demands of a Greater Lim or Alternative Arrangement or a Kuki State have emerged and are fast gaining currency amongst its votaries ?

There may be no single answer, but this should be no reason why some thoughts should not be given to this.