An open letter to the people of Manipur

thesaint *

I'm a Manipuri living outside of Manipur. The present situation in Manipur is really pathetic and I guess Manipur is in the "Dark Age Period" considering the law and order,political and enomical situation.

I've been home after 3 and half years recently. Here are the main issues which, as everyone knows, are bringing down manipur to its lowest level as far all the mentioned situations are concerned.

1)The most incompetent, corrupted, unsympathetic and aristrocratic goverment led by Mr. Ibobi Singh

2) His goondas (Manipuri police commandoes) looting and killing innocent civilians in the name of counter "Encounter". I've even witnessed an incident back home where a commando (17/16 years old) was misbehaving with and elderly citizen. Its been a well know fact that for every (fake) encounter killing, a commando gets monetary award and maybe a promotion.

So, why do these commandos kill innocent civilians? Maybe Mr Chief and his scoundrels of minister can give the best reply. If Mr Ibobi, takes Say 3-5 lakhs (maybe more) of rupees for recruiting a commando (most of them probably from his contituency), the commando tries to get back his money by hook or by crook ...even if that means killing civilians.

3)There is no study environment and no good colleges or universities to provide technical professional education in Manipur. So every year, hundreds of students go outside after their 12th, even if their parents had sell their land or encash their jewelleries. And please remember the amount of money that goes to other states would have been Manipur's source of income.

But unfortunately, neither the previous governments and present governments turned a blind eye to this entire episode. And its of no surprise to me, that when some people (who are not qualified or not educated and who cannot utter a word in english) have been ministers all along, why should they care about the education system? For them, its a luxurious life, sell as many as enginnering or medical seats or government jobs and earn as much as black money as much you can while you are still a minister.

4) No jobs (government or private). No MNC or companies would like to invest in Manipur, thanks to the insurgency, law and order problem in Manipur and indifference attitude of the government. Outside Manipur, hardly anyone knows about Manipur, even if they do know, its like they think that Manipur is worst economically backward, under develop state of India where people are highly uneducated and more.

5) Why are we saying that non-manipuris should go? They are only earning their livelihoods, whats wrong in that, so may Manipuris work outside Manipur like myself, no mayang has come up to me and told me that I'm taking his livelihood away. I've seen hundreds of Manipuris working as security guards, waiters and salespersons and in BPOs and IT companies. Each of them is trying to make a living here because they know that manipur cannot give them their bread and butter.

I don't find anything wrong if mayangs their livelihood in Manipur. They are not to be blamed for Manipur's economic condition. If you really traced back the economic condition of any ordinary Manipuri, they its goes down to the extortion systems that exist, corrupted poltical and beauraucratic systems. Instead of throwing the non-manipuris, throw out the political class out of the state, just kick them out!!!

The list will go on and on if I think about it. What I really want to mention and stress here is, "We cannot tell someone else to either build our house or renovate it, at the expense of their energy or monetary contribution, We as the owner of house, "Manipur" must build Manipur no matter what, even if that means cleaning up the mess in our backyard".

I know its easy to say it than doing it. The only problem we have is we behave like a bunch of cowards, who are afraid to claim what is rightfully our rights as law abiding citizens of this country. We are afraid of Mr Ibobi and his bunch of scoundrels who has done nothing for Manipur. I even heard from my cousin sometimes back that Mr Ibobi and his bunch of Miniters have imported foreign cars as government vehicles and his immediate family are in London studing medicine and living a posh life when thousands of manipuris are living a "hand to mouth" life.

People should investigate these things and bring in national level medias to expose the corrupted system in Manipur and question the source of income of the corrupted politicians and govt. officials. And I don't really understand why the people of manipur reelected his government for a second term knowing fully well his Government has only worsen the condition of Manipur, socially and economically.

Some people just for his goons for a few some of ruppees on the election day. Its a hurtful thing that such things have been happening. A few Rs 500 can give you momentary pleasures but its not going change anything else in your life because you've sold your conscience to differentiate what is good for the state and what is not.

Its pathetic to even think about that such incompetent, corrupted got a second chance to rule Manipur again. We must not sell our judgement, our conscience because everytime we vote a candidate for a few hundred bucks, we are selling our motherland, our mother. "People, Wake up, its time to clean up our house and put it in place". We cannot tell another state/government of India to clean our house. Down with Ibobi and his bunch. If we don't act know, we can only wait for our house to crumble.