Not Isolation but Working Together

Bijen Hemam *

Many experts say Manipur has been pushed 20-50 years back in history. Please think about it. We have now seen aiming guns at each other affects everyone but affects the poor the most.

I implore the people who are in the position to manage this conflict, if you truly feel for the people, and you consider them your people 'Please tone down your egos. No one lives forever to rule. No one can rule or own everything'.

There are 28 states, what would it take for our capital Imphal to be ranked the 28th city in India in terms of economic growth.

Here we see there is room for the growth of all the people in all the communities in Manipur.

And also the need for skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled labour force that is simply not available within. So there will be migrations. It is natural for people to migrate from one place to another. Some do it legally and others not so legal. And the effect of migrations on a large scale over a period is felt by people who have been living there beforehand.

This is true for Manipur and any other part of the world. We can see the on-going conflicts all around the world.

So it is important that we deal with the issue of migration (legal or illegal) within the framework of law that governs us.

Migration will happen, it must be studied, new laws must be formulated as per the needs of the changing times, but we must not take the law into our hands. For sure we cannot live in isolation.

If we try to isolate ourselves, how far are we going to isolate ourselves? There will always be a group of people who feel injustice has been done to them. Tomorrow this group will then ask for isolation.

But the group will have sub-groups and what happens when they seek the same. How many more sub-group are we going to create?

There can be no end to it as people are inherently different. Together We have to start looking towards a shared future.

Look how vastly different each region is in India. India is strong and today viewed as a hope for the world because it is a single united nation.

Smaller nations have smaller say. Similarly smaller states will have even smaller say.

Do we want to break it up further so that we no longer have any say?