No system, no ethics, free for all : Flaunting status, flouting rules
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 21 2011 -

Barely four days into the suspension of water supply to the consumers by the PHED employees union to denounce the murder of a father-son duo by the KCP (MTF, Kesho Meitei) and the cost of delivering 10,000 litres of water by private water tankers has shot up to Rs 1500 or so from its earlier rate of Rs 700/800.

It is the same with other capacity water carriers with the rates jumping from its earlier Rs 400 to Rs 800/900 per trip and Rs 200 to Rs 400/450 per trip.

A similar story also runs in the case of tankers delivering water from the rivers. Switch gear to a totally different dimension and we have the Assam Rifles now gunning for the KRA for ostensibly opening a volley of gun shots at a time when the Chief Minister was inaugurating a number of administrative offices in Sadar Hills a few days back.

Violation of the ground rules of the Suspension of Operation by the rebel outfit is the reason for the Union Home Ministry to squeeze the pressure point of the Assam Rifles to jolt them awake to the blatant act.

So far so good and move on to yet another totally different sphere and one sees the level to which certain people will go to assert their status quotient on every perceivable space and nowhere is this more visible than the heavy security escorts that tag along such persons when they go out for some social functions and dos such as a marriage ceremony.

The three points mentioned here appear totally unrelated with no common thread running through them and yet one can't help but sense the presence of a common denominator in all of them.

Moral bankruptcy of all, where ethics is a dirty word, is perhaps the most visible thread that runs through all the examples which have been quoted.

When traders or more specifically the people behind private water carriers have no qualms about doubling their delivery rate, just so because there has been a sharp increase in demand, then it says something of a place where the people themselves will sup with the devil himself if given the opportunity.

Put in the corrupt white collared class, the big time traders, the politicians and their chamchas, which may include the class of people known as the contractors and the circle that go on to define the Manipur that we know today is complete. And to even think that it is these people who point an accusing finger at the bureaucrats and the politicians !

No system, no ethics, no nothing, except an all pervasive culture of Dog Eat Dog World.

Cut to the response of the Union Home Ministry to the Sadar Hills incident a few days back and one may be forgiven to think that maybe this was the first time that the ground rules of the SoO were violated with such impunity.

It did not matter when officials were abducted for ransom and no it did not matter when the public are forced to meet the extortion demands of the groups which have signed the SoO pact.

Crack the SoO whip by all means, but has any serious question been given on how the cadres managed to lay their hands on the guns with which they opened fire ? Why has no responsibility been fixed ?

Or is it a case of no one being appointed to oversee the ground rules, which also include the deposition of arms and ammos at some designated chambers/places/camps ?

And so it goes that while certain class of traders or businessmen will not hesitate to hike the rate of their services at the first given opportunity, the Government wakes up to rules and regulations and ceasefire pacts or ground rules only when the intended target is someone politically important.

Such a climate of all round confusion and a weird understanding of priorities perhaps offers just the perfect climate to script a status quotient which massages the ego of those entitled to the VIP tag no end and this is most visible in the hordes of security personnel who are lugged around at social dos such as a marriage ceremony.

Apart from massaging the fragile ego of the people entitled to the security escorts, such a trend also add to the nuisance value on the roads of Imphal, especially during peak traffic hour !

A place where the rate of anything can be hiked at the fancy of whims of anyone, a place where rules and regulations are to be understood only through the prism of what it does to the political masters and a place where status is something to be flaunted around-this in effect sums up the Manipur of today.