I am utterly perplexed with the growing distasteful attitude of the dominant/majority community in Manipur. Do not be misunderstood that my opinion is wholly influenced by the fact that I belong to one of the minority groups in Manipur.

To view from vantage point of 'an outsider,' one of the phenomenons that is unabashedly unfolding in Manipur is the increasing tendency of the majority community to scrutinize, deride, criticize the actions, policies and issues relating to the minority communities while at the same time forbidding its actions and policies from critical scrutiny on the ground that they are done primarily for the interest of the people Manipur, to protect the territorial integrity of Manipur and whatever they called.

This is mainly because the dominant community has erroneously come to believe that their interest is conterminous with that of the 'whole people' presently living in the state of Manipur. This belief profoundly contradicts the argument articulated by them that Manipur is comprised of not one community alone but different communities and that the need is for unity and tolerance among different communities.

Now the question is: Is the dominant community really 'working' for the unity and interests of all the communities or rather pursuing its own 'well-being' in the garb of promoting the interest of all?

The burning of government schools in the Naga districts recently or to stress further back, the burning of books belonging to the syllabus of the Board of Secondary Education in Manipur (BSEM), has not 'gone down' well with the dominant community and has unleashed their fury and anger at it.

They have castigated the burning of Government properties calling it an act of vandalism, arsons, political conspiracy etc.

Now I want to ask a pertinent question to them: Do you think the burning down of State assembly in 2001 or the Manipur library was not a case of vandalism? Or are you justifying that in the name of protecting the interest of the people of Manipur?

The Manipur state assembly building is the place where the representatives of the people gather to deliberate and it does not meant that a particular community has to set it ablaze just because it thinks that the members are not catering to their interests.

This is an utter mockery of democracy. The similar case is with Manipur library- since some books were kept in the library which was antithetical to their cultural interest, it was simply burnt down.

Now, both the state assembly building and the State central library are not exclusive meant for one particular community. Thus no community has the right to destroy these buildings just because their sole interests are not met. If this happens, it will amount to disrespecting the other communities and to ignore their existence too.

By invoking these arguments I am not trying to justify the burning of schools and books in Naga areas. Neither am I trying to argue that Nagas have the right to burn schools and books because the Meities are also burning the state assembly and state central library buildings.

I am merely trying to emphasize that preventing ourselves from critical scrutiny by others while we gleefully try to poke at others is always a self-defeating game. If we want to avoid being dubbed as hypo-critical, it is always important to adopt a critical stance directing towards ourselves first before extending it to others. This way mutual understating and trust between different groups is generated.

As I had mentioned, the prevailing scenario in Manipur is one where the dominant/majority community see itself as 'forever committing' no wrongs. And also its policies and actions should never be questioned or disputed nor open to criticism because they are done for the interests of the people of Manipur clearly contrasting from the reality that the interests they are talking about specially favors their own parochial interests.

To stress the point further, a particular action plan of the dominant community is always right but when the same is adopted by other communities, then it has to be always wrong.

This double standard game of the dominant community expose the hollowness of their claim that they are promoting the interests cutting community boundaries while it is very clear to the other minority communities that 'this interest' promoted by the dominant community have no converging point with their own interests.