Price of protecting one’s turf : Indifferent Government
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 09 2015 -

One student dead.

It is at times like this that it becomes more and more difficult to say against whom the people’s angst and ire and anxiety should be directed, the incessant influx of non-local people or the Government agency, particularly the State police personnel.

Tears will no doubt be shed but important to acknowledge that these tears could have easily been avoided if only those who have been entrusted with the task of maintaining law and order realise the basic concept of policing.

And it goes without saying that launching a crackdown that could kill and which did happen cannot be called policing at all.

The young student is dead and the natural question that comes to mind is whether the students had resorted to such an agitation that the police had to resort to a crackdown of such a scale that it led to the death of one of the students.

More importantly, will the death of the student stop others or deflate the demand to implement the Inner Line Permit System in the State ?

More than obvious that no serious thoughts have been given on how to deal with those who come out to demand that the ILPS be implemented in the State.

That the police need some kind of an education while dealing with the young students on protest became more than clear when a harsh crackdown was launched on young students who had gathered near the State Assembly to press home the demand some days back.

It is also time for everyone to question whether it is such a good idea to make the young students become part of the protest demonstrations.

The State Government has ordered the closure of all educational institutions from today, but what stopped them from issuing such an order earlier ?

That there is practically no one to swallow the Manipur Regulation of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant Workers (MRVTMW) Bill must have been clear to the Government.

This Bill was passed in the last Assembly session but as things stand today, there is nothing to suggest that the people or more particularly the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System is ready to accept this.

So far there is nothing much to suggest that the Government has taken the rejection of the Bill seriously.

This is what is surprising given the fact that it was the State Government which went the extra mile to constitute the All Political Parties Committee on ILPS some time back.

Again it was to address the growing apprehension of the people that inputs and suggestions were sought from the public and well known personalities and their contributions taken note of.

All these efforts however seem to have evaporated if the contention of the JCILPS is anything to go by.

That the Government has maintained a stoic silence, even in the face of the outright rejection of the MRVTMW Bill, defies all logical explanation.

Only right that the Government should have responded to the rejection of the said Bill, instead of maintaining an air of indifference.

One student killed, many more manhandled and here is the perfect recipe to make things worse.