Sleeping over assurance for a year : Important lessons for all
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: Ocotber 22, 2014 -
Important lessons that all should learn.
One, it does not make much sense in blocking the National Highways at a time when a large section of the population is gearing up for one of the biggest festivals in a year.
Two, the State Government has absolutely no right to give assurances if it does not intend to keep it.
The All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur has decided to roll back its earlier stand of going ahead with the highway bandh agitation and this is a welcome development.
Still not very clear why the student body decided to call off its course of agitation, but there is a lesson that should not be forgotten, especially by those who are running the affairs of the State.
In the first place, the student body had every reason to feel peeved and disappointed with the Government.
Nearly a year back, that is on November 25, 2013, the State Government had assured that the demands put up by the student body would be looked into.
One year down the line and there is still nothing to show that the Government intends to keep its promise.
Anyone would have felt frustrated and disappointed with the conduct of the Government and this is exactly what ATSUM must have felt constraining it to go ahead with its course of agitation.
Not that the Government was not warned earlier. It was just a few days back that the student body had stated that it would be constrained to launch the agitation if the Government does not take up any remedial steps by October 20.
If the Government was not in a position to fulfil the charter of demands put up by the student body, then why make the assurance in the first place ?
The Government is not here to strike temporary agreements.
It is definitely not here to bluff its way and present a facade. Issues are not resolved by verbal exercise.
If at all there is a lesson to be learnt from the present situation then it is the point that the Government must get out from the present mindset of striking temporary truce.
A strong Government is not necessarily measured by the number of MLAs it has but also by the manner in which it gets down to the business of governance.
The ATSUM experience must be more than enough indication that the Government has miserably failed on this front.
In as much as there is a lesson for the Government, it is also the time for everyone to sit down and seriously ponder over some pressing points.
ATSUM or anyone for that matter must seriously introspect whether it is desirable that the land should be choked off to settle a score with the Government.
The decision to call off the agitation has been taken, but who would suffer if the student body had actually stuck to their original plan and gone ahead with the road block ?
Certainly the high and mighty people who betrayed the ATSUM will not suffer, but the common people.
Let the people suffer cannot be the answer but this is what would have been if the student body had stuck by their earlier decision to impose the highway blockade.
Let not the lesson be lost on anyone.
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