Respecting the essence of Good Friday : Timely corrigendum
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 31 2018 -

Good Friday and Easter Sunday are central to the belief of Christianity. Sans the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday and the rise of Christ from the dead on Easter Sunday, the central idea of Christianity would be lost and it this which is behind the uproar when the State Government issued an official order, making Good Friday a working day for all Government employees.

A corrigendum later which relaxed the working day stance of the Government may have helped in soothing the frayed nerves of the hill people, who are primarily Christians, but this still does not take away the question of why the BJP led Government did not sit down and think about the possible ramifications of issuing such an order in the first place.

Imagine the hue and cry that will be raised if the Government decides to make Diwali or Ningol Chakkouba working days for all Government employees. Good sense did prevail and hence the corrigendum and this is where a reminder becomes necessary for the Government to digest.

As the Constitution has rightly propounded, India is a secular country and hence the need to respect all religion and no Government should be identified with one particular religion.

Similarly it becomes important for the Government to ensure that it should be seen as not working against the interest of any particular religion.

This is why there was such a huge uproar from numerous hill based organisations against the very decision of the Government to make Good Friday a working day for all Government employees.

The Government should learn to respect all religion and most importantly it should also be seen to respect all religion.

Good Governance Day on December 25, that is Christmas. Digital India Day on Good Friday in 2017.

There seems to be a pattern here and it is this which is hard to digest. The concept behind Good Governance Day is no doubt noble and good but why choose December 25 ?

Why not make Good Governance Day on any other day is the question that naturally follows.

It is against this backdrop that Christian organisations and hill based civil society organisations came out so strongly against the earlier notification of the Government to make Good Friday a working day for all Government employees.

All these steps run against the spirit of the Go to Hills slogan coined by Chief Minister N Biren and is also against the spirit in which the BJP led Government has reached out to the hill districts.

The Hill Leaders’ Day is an attempt to demonstrate that the BJP led Government sees Manipur as a whole and is interested in discussing the issues which besiege the hills but when it fails to respect the religious sentiments of the hill people, who are predominantly Christians, then there is a missing link and Manipur can certainly live without this.

The corrigendum to the earlier notification is a demonstration that the Government is ready to listen to all and here is hoping that it learns along the way and does not repeat such a fiasco in the future.