Tag: Editorial

Periodic news report that the psychiatry wards in the hospitals in Manipur are showing a general upswing of cases should be enough to ring the alarm bells for everybody, in particular the government. Surely there is every reason to believe that this has greatly to do with the inevitable breakdown of institutions, traditional and modern, consequent upon the prolonged state of mindless violence and spiralling lawlessness the people are exposed to. We even suspect that the conditions for dementia everybody has come to be subjected to have taken a much wider toll. This may be a little beyond the scope of journalists, constrained constantly by the pressures of extremely short deadlines, and work volume in the case of the provincial media which are generally not staffed or moneyed enough to spare reporters or sponsor researches that may take months, but definitely a meaningful pursuit for academics and academic NGOs to establish a correlation between the rising cases of psychiatric cases and the uncertain and unsafe social environment in the state. There perhaps is also a correlation between this chaotic and intimidating state of affairs and the rising cases of stress related disorders, such as hypertension, migraine, stomach ulcers etc. In all likelihood, the perennial state of mayhem, overbearing decrees and threats of physical injury and elimination are cumulatively becoming a cause for chronic and extremely alarming health issues.

Come to think of it, what would be a day in the life of an average man or woman or even child in the state like? From dawn to dusk, information which get registered in their consciousness are those of violence, tragic aftermaths of murderous aggressions, faces of laments and protests, threats and diktats. They literally go to sleep with news and images of kidnaps, abductions and bloody encounters on the local cable TV channel, and then wake up the next morning to be greeted by pictures and news of blood, gore and deaths, staring back at them from the pages of their morning newspapers. All these are over and above the myriad, normal and awesome challenges of life everybody everywhere has to face. So average parents of school-going children for instance have not only to fight the clock to pack off their children to school in time and in order, but also desperately scan the pages of the local newspapers to find out whether the day is clear of any bandh or blockade call, lest their children get caught in senseless trouble and danger. Not just adults and government officers, children also get kidnapped. Sometimes they are sexually abused and murdered these days. Almost as if by rule, so many meet violent deaths almost on a daily basis, for reasons that seldom become open. Frustratingly, the culprits also most of the time are unofficially known to everybody, but officially ignored totally.

Twenty years ago, such crimes would have elicited the bewildered response from anybody that these are unthinkable and impossible in Manipur. Today even the most naive and trusting grandmothers would accept these as Manipur’s beastly new reality. Once upon a time, the moderating influences of a belief in a benign divine order, as well as those of a deeply institutionalised traditional value system was strong. Back then, it did not always take the law to convince people the basics of what are wrong and right, or what are acceptable behaviours and what are not. Law keeping then was not so impossibly arduous. The venerated space in society that elders once enjoyed, the respect reserved for women and the universal protective instinct for children, have all waned away. It is not just the law which has been turned on its head, but the intuitive values built over aeons as well. Something went wrong somewhere down the line and there was nobody to arrest the trend. A lot of it probably had to do with the wayward ways of those in charge of the establishment. Official corruption must have been the first blow to shake up faith in social values painstakingly nurtured over generations. The law too soon was to lose its moral authority over the people, leading them to take it into their own hands. There was also, in certain quarters, an intellectual eagerness to destroy established institutions on the pretext that they were degenerate, before new ones were built. The fact sheet at this moment shows values of traditional and instinctual jurisprudence, as well as the moral hold of legal institutions of the establishment, have been effectively decimated, but their replacements are stillborn. If not, they are overbearingly authoritarian, undemocratic, hate-driven and obdurately hegemonic.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/looming-social-dementia/

Absolute faith is absolute surrender to an amazing grace. A lot many people do not like the idea of surrender, but it is a fact that a lot many who felt there never was a need to surrender, did ultimately surrender – albeit a surrender not in humiliation, but in humility. In legendary singer and poet, Bob Dylan’s words: “You may be the heavy weight champion of the world, but someday you gonna have to serve somebody.” This amazing grace however does not have to be in the direct sense of Almighty God, but often manifests in the shape of what many poets have referred to as “hope”. TS Eliot’s “Four Quartets” comes to mind, an extended poem that followed his earlier one of a similar genre “The Wasteland”, which, after a lengthy tour of the spiritually barren landscape of modern life, ends with the chant Shanti, repeated three times. In the end, all that matters is peace, but peace, as a physical condition as well as a mental state, is illusive. Nobody would know this better than those of us in Manipur. Its quest has also never been easy. In a very paradoxically way, those who have found it are those who have surrendered – in the most sublime cases, surrendered their individual wills to the will of the “Amazing Grace”.

Many, if not most religions actually say this. Earthly life in this interpretation is a punishment, and transition from this temporal existence to the divine is the ultimate meaning. In the Judaic religions (including Christianity) the original sin is what condemned life to earthly existence. Otherwise it would have been an eternity in Eden for the original parents and nobody else. As to how attractive this idea is, is a matter of opinion. The original mother, Eve, probably thought it was a bore so she ate the forbidden apple, out of what is described as a feminine weakness. If not for her original sin, we all probably would never have seen daylight, or moonlight for that matter. It is difficult to say if we should deride what she did or else be thankful. Another paradox of life we suppose – another overwhelming question of “to be or not to be”. To be happy with a secure vegetative life, or else look for happiness in choosing to face challenges even if it means exposure to trouble and misery. The non-Semitic religions say very much the same thing, but in a different way. Take Buddhism for instance, or Hinduism for that matter. Rebirth is perpetuated by individual sins, implying that this cycle will end when sin is banished. As in other religions, earthly nonexistence here becomes bliss. The lure of this bliss, it has been explained, is also what gives suicide bombers the fanatic courage which makes them able to do what they do.

But the Amazing Grace manifests in another more tangible and comprehensible form – hope. To paraphrase Eliot’s “Four Quartets” this amazing grace is like the faith of a passenger in a subway train that stops and becomes stranded for hours in pitch darkness in the middle of a tunnel deep down below the surface of the earth because of a sudden power failure, that power would be ultimately restored and the train would again begin moving. That at the end of even the darkest tunnel, there would be light. Put another way, it is like a test of faith of a child in her father’s love for her and her belief that he would never abandon her, come what may. In pitch darkness where she cannot see anything, in the event of an emergency if she is required to jump from the window of her first floor room, and her father implores her to do so from below with the assurance that he can see her and would catch her, would she jump? She would if she had enough faith in her father. Such faiths give hope. Such hopes salvage. The amazing grace is that way too. For some inscrutable reason which you cannot explain but all the same feel, you know that this amazing grace would not let you fall. Come to think of it, Manipur has been stranded in the middle of a deep, dark tunnel for decades. Yet it has held together, despite all the centrifugal forces threatening to tear it apart. It is reasonable to believe hence that despite all its inherent contradictions, a faith in itself has given it the strength and hope that there would one day be light. What a time to recall the miracle of this Amazing Grace in this auspicious and festive season of a great religion of the world.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/amazing-grace/

Absolute faith is absolute surrender to an amazing grace. A lot many people do not like the idea of surrender, but it is a fact that a lot many who felt there never was a need to surrender, did ultimately surrender – albeit a surrender not in humiliation, but in humility. In legendary singer and poet, Bob Dylan’s words: “You may be the heavy weight champion of the world, but someday you gonna have to serve somebody.” This amazing grace however does not have to be in the direct sense of Almighty God, but often manifests in the shape of what many poets have referred to as “hope”. TS Eliot’s “Four Quartets” comes to mind, an extended poem that followed his earlier one of a similar genre “The Wasteland”, which, after a lengthy tour of the spiritually barren landscape of modern life, ends with the chant Shanti, repeated three times. In the end, all that matters is peace, but peace, as a physical condition as well as a mental state, is illusive. Nobody would know this better than those of us in Manipur. Its quest has also never been easy. In a very paradoxically way, those who have found it are those who have surrendered – in the most sublime cases, surrendered their individual wills to the will of the “Amazing Grace”.

Many, if not most religions actually say this. Earthly life in this interpretation is a punishment, and transition from this temporal existence to the divine is the ultimate meaning. In the Judaic religions (including Christianity) the original sin is what condemned life to earthly existence. Otherwise it would have been an eternity in Eden for the original parents and nobody else. As to how attractive this idea is, is a matter of opinion. The original mother, Eve, probably thought it was a bore so she ate the forbidden apple, out of what is described as a feminine weakness. If not for her original sin, we all probably would never have seen daylight, or moonlight for that matter. It is difficult to say if we should deride what she did or else be thankful. Another paradox of life we suppose – another overwhelming question of “to be or not to be”. To be happy with a secure vegetative life, or else look for happiness in choosing to face challenges even if it means exposure to trouble and misery. The non-Semitic religions say very much the same thing, but in a different way. Take Buddhism for instance, or Hinduism for that matter. Rebirth is perpetuated by individual sins, implying that this cycle will end when sin is banished. As in other religions, earthly nonexistence here becomes bliss. The lure of this bliss, it has been explained, is also what gives suicide bombers the fanatic courage which makes them able to do what they do.

But the Amazing Grace manifests in another more tangible and comprehensible form – hope. To paraphrase Eliot’s “Four Quartets” this amazing grace is like the faith of a passenger in a subway train that stops and becomes stranded for hours in pitch darkness in the middle of a tunnel deep down below the surface of the earth because of a sudden power failure, that power would be ultimately restored and the train would again begin moving. That at the end of even the darkest tunnel, there would be light. Put another way, it is like a test of faith of a child in her father’s love for her and her belief that he would never abandon her, come what may. In pitch darkness where she cannot see anything, in the event of an emergency if she is required to jump from the window of her first floor room, and her father implores her to do so from below with the assurance that he can see her and would catch her, would she jump? She would if she had enough faith in her father. Such faiths give hope. Such hopes salvage. The amazing grace is that way too. For some inscrutable reason which you cannot explain but all the same feel, you know that this amazing grace would not let you fall. Come to think of it, Manipur has been stranded in the middle of a deep, dark tunnel for decades. Yet it has held together, despite all the centrifugal forces threatening to tear it apart. It is reasonable to believe hence that despite all its inherent contradictions, a faith in itself has given it the strength and hope that there would one day be light. What a time to recall the miracle of this Amazing Grace in this auspicious and festive season of a great religion of the world.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/amazing-grace/

The attack on a BJP political rally at Thoubal two days ago was condemnable. Although nobody has claimed responsibility as to who the mob was affiliated to, it is anybody’s guess where this might be. The BJP which chose to hold the rally at Thoubal too would have actually been looking for such a confrontation. The constituency, it is well known is that of the chief minister, Okram Ibobi, and anybody who has been observing developments with an eye on the forthcoming elections would not hesitate to say there is hardly likely to be any contest here and Ibobi would win hands down. The chief minister, according to people with intimate knowledge of the constituency, has almost a cult following here, and his ardent supporters would do anything to ensure there isn’t even a wee bit of challenge to their hero’s supremacy. Not only is it a question of pride in an outlying district throwing up a chief minister of the state, but also of what the chief minister has done for the constituency and its people in tangible material terms. It is said that in the constituency there is not a single family today without a government job, and this is phenomenal in a state where unemployment is climbing to up the vicinity of 20 percent. In many other areas, there would be more families without a government job than those with one.

It is unlikely there was a mastermind behind the attack and the mob were just fanatical supporters of the chief minister wishing to show their loyalty in doing what they believed was in the interest of the man they literally worship. Little would they have realised they did more harm to the image of the man they thought they were helping. Remember the parable from the junior school text book of the ultra loyal monkey who wanted to kill the fly on the nose of his sleeping master with a club. Whatever the motivation behind the attack was, it must not be taken lightly. This is especially so because the Assembly elections are just about two months ahead and such act if allowed to go without penalty would become threatening for candidates who intend to stand against the chief minister. Not only this, if left unchallenged by the law, it may begin to encourage more in other constituencies supporting candidates currently in power, to take the law into their own hands. Since it is unlikely the government would pursue the Thoubal incident in earnest, perhaps it is only right for the Election Commission of India, ECI, to intervene. A strong message must be sent out now that such behaviour, regardless of which side of the electoral battle line the culprits belong, would not be tolerated at any cost.

But there are also other things of concern. If it is true that Thoubal has been favoured too disproportionately in reaping the benefits of the government, as is often charged, there would have to be something wrong. It is true any politician would like to nurture his constituency so as to ensure his longevity in politics, and indeed this is encouraged to officially sanctioned limits but the fact is, there is a limit. The local area development funds availed to all MLAs and MPs is meant precisely for this purpose, but anything beyond would have to be viewed with a degree of scepticism. If percentage of government employees recruited in the last 10 years in the Thoubal constituency (the period of Ibobi’s chief ministership) has soared far too much above the state’s average, the matter needs to be seen with a critical eye. If it is a question of private enterprises sprouting and spreading thereby generating employment, there can be little to question, for it is individual enterprise which made this possible, perhaps with institutional support such as easy credit facilities from the banks etc which also is perfectly legitimate. If on the other hand, it is a matter of distribution of government largess, then the familiar question would arise whether the chief minister is the leader of the state or of his constituency alone. But as we said, these are only serious speculations of what may be an infringement on the law and propriety, and in this sense an alert for everybody to be wary, but the more urgent concern is that of the attack on the BJP rally at Thoubal. The matter has already come up at the Rajya Sabha and it must now be pursued to its logical end in the state too so that the electoral accounts of the Assembly polls two months ahead is begun on a clean slate.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/election-hiccups-already/

Yesterday was Nupilal Day, a day to commemorate womanhood in the state which rose to momentous social callings in 1939, just as they did before in 1904, to force the then British administration to retract certain policies that hurt the common people both materially as well as spiritually. It is common knowledge today that in the earlier instance, it was forced labour enlisted by the British authorities they protested against and in the second it was the export of rice from the state while there was a famine-like situation on account of two consecutive inadequate monsoons. In both the cases, the women ultimately had the government rethinking. While these historic events are important as significant landmarks in the portrayal of womanhood and womanpower in the state, they must not be allowed to be relegated to routine occasions for official functions and empty political rhetoric. There is nothing static about womanhood or womanpower in the state, and these qualities are very much a living culture. Evidences of these are everywhere in every act of resistance to injustice and oppression in the state. The most dramatic of this was the July 15 incident in 2004, when women disrobed in front of the Kangla Gate, to challenge troops then stationed within the complex, in the wake of the rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama. Then of course, more than even this explosive outburst of emotions, there is Irom Sharmila Chanu, doing her lonely long distance run, covering distance that no human has ever covered and is unlikely ever to emulate.

Manipuri womanhood is a live phenomenon. It is a potent energy capable of bringing about immense social changes, although today there are powerful subversive patriarchal forces trying to rob it of its autonomous existence. Still, nobody would doubt that without the state’s immense store of womanpower brought to the fore during any momentous upheaval, nothing can actually move. Celebration of events such as Nupilal Day, should be an acknowledgment of this strength within rather than merely a commemoration of past chapters of history. Indeed, on many practical fronts, this energy has had to be called forth to address vexing issues facing the state. Manipur’s recent history being troubled and its present too replete with unresolved issues, the responsibility on the shoulders of this celebrated force will continue to be vitally relevant always. As a matter of fact, we are of the opinion it must again come forth now to gauge as well as forge a tangible public opinion on which way the future of the place lie. In particular, it must be the agent to make an honest assessment of the nature of the resolution the public has in mind to the issue of insurgency. Is it time for a negotiated settlement of the issues at stake or must the violent antagonism continue? Must these issues undergo moderations or should they remain unaltered from what they were conceived to be at their inception? Etc. These are vitally important questions, and nobody, not even the government or those waging war against the government, must presume to have the answer. These answers must not be a matter of fiats of anybody or any institution, however powerful they may be. Their answers must be refreshed periodically too, and there is nobody better to shoulder this responsibility of conducting continuous referendums than the warriors who made the Nupilals virtual tidal waves of change throughout the place’s history.

Many speakers on the occasion did make discreet references to the potency of this force and its continued relevance in putting back the state’s peace train back on its track. We do hope these words prove prophetic and many with levers of state power would practice what they preached. But as we say this, we cannot help suspecting everything would be back to the chaotic normal of Manipur and the seemingly solemn pledges sooner forgotten. In the celebration of Manipuri womanhood all who joined in making extravagant eulogies of it, not once mentioned somebody who has become an iconic symbol of this womanhood or the loneliness of the valiant long distance runner – Irom Sharmila Chanu.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/celebrating-womanpower/

The very militant speech in support of the “Occupy Movement” made by the maverick activist and writer Arundhati Roy and published by the Guardian Daily, United Kingdom, on November 17, had one idea which struck more than the others. She said by implication that the West has stopped thinking justice and is now only obsessed with Human Rights. This thought comes across as very relevant in the wake of the wide observance of Human Rights day across the world, and indeed in Manipur. There were fiery speeches made by firebrand human rights defenders, lawyers, academics, social workers and politicians of all hues. Many, it was obvious, passionately believed in the cause they championed, while many others simply wanted political and personal mileages out of the occasion. Amidst all this, the thought Roy raised comes as curiously interesting. It should merit closer scrutiny. If not for anything else, this should be in the spirit of never accepting any idea as infallible truth until it has been literally and periodically put through the test by the fire of scientific rationale and healthy scepticism.

What then could Roy have meant when she in her usual un-moderated militancy, censured even the notion of human rights? Our thinking is, probably she meant a certain outlook to human rights and not the human rights movement per se. What she intended probably was to make the world realise that it is time to expand the notion of human rights. Indeed, the thought that the human rights charter has limitations and has not touched all issues of natural rights is not new. Even the founders of the movement were aware of this limitation, which is exactly why the charter of rights they drew up was christened “Universal Charter of Human Rights” and not “Charter of Universal Human Rights”. In other words, they were aware that there can be nothing as universal human rights, though consensually the rights they named in the charter come very close to what should be inalienable rights any human being is guaranteed. It is essential in this reading of the charter to understand the context this document was drawn up. It may be recalled the need for such a charter became urgent and compelling at the end of the World War-II, after it was demonstrated beyond the pale the huge atrocities the “State” was capable of. The modern belief and faith in the “State” was what was being questioned. The assertion was once again that absolute power corrupts even if it is not an individual but a state which is given it. In its essence, the Human Rights movement is about checking the “State”.

But the rights listed in the Human Rights charter have other reflections of geography. It came into existence in the heights of the Western industrial age, and understandably also sought to control the atrocities industrial workers are liable to suffer at the hands of capitalist owners of industries. As for instance, one of the rights specified is the right to form trade union. In the industrialised society nobody will doubt this is vital, but this relevance would become almost totally redundant in an agrarian economy, or amongst indigenous populations of shift cultivators and hunter gatherers. Similarly, another clause emphasises on “right to work”. This too would make little sense in an agrarian society. But this can also be read as an anticipation that some day these agrarian societies and indigenous populations too would transition into an industrial society and hence protection of the putative individual workers when the projected time arrives is deemed prudent. However, these are some pointers that even such an important universal movement must time to time be subject to reviews and soul searches. To its credit, it must be said that the movement has been accommodative of such reviews. The embrace of the indigenous people’s movement into its fold is just a very important indicator. Roy’s disdain was also probably provoked by the manner the United States and other Western countries have been using Human Rights as an alibi for their invasions of countries which did not conform to their standard of a just world order. Iraq, Afghanistan and earlier on Vietnam are just some examples. From indications, the next target for this seemingly deliberate skewed reading of Human Rights is most likely to be Iran. While we join the chorus cheering the Human Rights movement, we must throw in the caveat that its champions must be ready and a little more open to healthy criticism in order that the movement stays on track.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/human-rights-questioned/

By Wangkheimayum Bhupendra Singh
The Chief Minister of Manipur had recently announced that the law and order situation in the State is not ready for the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 to be removed. As reported by various local dailies the Chief Minister had made the announcement during a recent function. He may have a point in making the statement. Everyone is aware of the present law and order situation in the State. Bombs are exploding in the state like never before with the most recent being the blast at the Sangai Tourism festival gate at Hafta Kangjeibung on November 30 killing a rickshaw puller who was also reported to be the carrier of the bomb and injuring other persons. The State in the recent past has seen an upsurge of bomb blasts and violent activities. The Sangai festival blast, Chingamathak blast, the Diwali blast at Thangal Bazar, Sangakpham blast, the ADC office blast, the recent attack on the life of education minister DD Thaisii all would help the Chief Minister in justifying his statement that the state is not ready for the total repeal of the AFSPA, 1958. It is for everyone to see that the present law and order situation in the state is not good.

It is also for everyone to guess that the CM’s statement came in light of the recent blast at Sangai festival gate just three days ahead of the Prime Ministers’ visit to the state and just a few metres away from one of the mega structures which the Prime Minister had inaugurated during his visit to the state on December 3. However the main concern is that the Chief Minister as well as making such statements should also consider the fact that the bomb exploded in the first place due to the laxity of the government and its agencies. A bomb explosion in the heart of the State, just three days ahead of the PM’s visit and that too just a few meters away from a building which the PM is supposed to inaugurate can only be interpreted as due to the laxity of the government and its agencies. The people of the state also understand that the present upsurge in violent activities in the State should be stopped at once and for that the government should use it’s machineries to their full potential and ensure that the people of the State can have a good nights’ sleep without much disturbances. Maintaining law and order in the State would always remain the main prerogative of a State and enabling the State to do so should be the main concern of the general public. Maintaining this maxim would only ensure that the State is moving towards the right direction towards development.

Both the state and the general public should not kill each other’s inspiration. The State should consider that to bring development in the state, peace is of utmost importance and the ways of the government should always be dictated by a strong desire to provide a strong security blanket over its general public and secure them from any untoward violence. The general public in return should be able to relate to the State and its ways, which doesn’t mean that they should follow the State blindly, but it should have the courage to mend any aimless ways of the State and at the same time provide the State with its own space to work and use its machineries to get the desired result. The concern to bring peace into the State should be for both the general public and the State.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/of-the-public-and-the-state/

The current spurt in interest in Burma and the growing popularity of its other relatively more recent name Myanmar, has thrown up some interesting debates relevant to even Manipur. Even after the former military junta in the country decided to change the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar, much of the conscientious section of the international media, including the BBC and CNN among many others, had been insisting on referring to the country as Burma. Perhaps this was meant as a support for pro-democracy champion and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, who too continued to refer to her country as Burma. But in the past month or so, when Burma is seen as opening up to the outside world, and in equal measures the world too have come to acknowledge and accept this sleeping South East Asian country’s overtures, pledging among others the chairmanship of the ASEAN in 2014, Burma’s other name Myanmar is beginning to replace its old nomenclature. The argument by those within Burma for their preference of the new name is that the name “Burma” is inclined too closely to the Burmans, the overwhelmingly dominant community in the country, at the cost of somewhat excluding its many different ethnic minorities. Even Aung San Suu Kyi now seems soft on the idea of a name change. Perhaps her refusal to use it all this while was only an extension of her opposition to the military junta and now the military is seemingly making a voluntary exit from the country’s political forefront, she thinks shifting her stance is legitimate.

The debate is relevant to Manipur for almost identical reasons. While there is nothing seemingly wrong with the name Manipur, what becomes problematic is the derivative term Manipuri which is supposed to signify all citizens of the state. The problem as in Burma is, “Manipuri” has for many reasons, tangible and intangible, come to signify chiefly the numerically dominant community of the state, the Meiteis. Although there are many, including most recently the chief minister, Okram Ibobi, tried to clarify that “Manipuri” signifies or should signify all domiciles of the state, the truth is, such rhetoric have never been much more than weak attempts at being politically correct. Even educated and self-proclaimed liberated citizens more often than not relapse into the old mindset and continue to use the terms “Meitei” and “Manipuri” as synonyms. So try as many would to make “Manipuri” have a more inclusive connotation, another section of the population which is not sensitive to the issue have continued and would continue to ensure that the clock is turned back and this divisive inference of the name remains.

The moot point is, why not think of a more inclusive name for Manipur to which all the peoples of the state can identify with and share a sense of belonging. The overture would not be altogether novel even in this country. So many other states and cities have done so in the past. The state of Madras became Tamil Nadu and later on its capital city of Madras too became Chennai. Likewise, Calcutta became Kolkata, Poona became Pune etc. Come to think of if, the list of such changes of nomenclatures of places in India in recent times is indeed long. Manipur has many ancient names that predate the nomenclature “Manipur”. Of this many are also what other ancient feudal principalities in the region gave it. The new name, if at all, does not have to be any one of these, but preferably an imaginatively conceived one which draws from the place’s ancient heritages as well as modern challenges. The intent is to ensure a sense of belonging and identification to one and all in the state. If on the other hand, as the chief minister in his recent speech said, it becomes possible for everybody to internalise the notion of “Manipuri” as indicating not just the dominant community but every son of the soil of Manipur, then there cannot be a better way. However, as of now, this effort is not making much headway, all because of chauvinists amongst the dominant community as well as rabid and frenzied ghetto mentality of many amongst the minority communities.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/whats-in-a-name/

The current spurt in interest in Burma and the growing popularity of its other relatively more recent name Myanmar, has thrown up some interesting debates relevant to even Manipur. Even after the former military junta in the country decided to change the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar, much of the conscientious section of the international media, including the BBC and CNN among many others, had been insisting on referring to the country as Burma. Perhaps this was meant as a support for pro-democracy champion and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, who too continued to refer to her country as Burma. But in the past month or so, when Burma is seen as opening up to the outside world, and in equal measures the world too have come to acknowledge and accept this sleeping South East Asian country’s overtures, pledging among others the chairmanship of the ASEAN in 2014, Burma’s other name Myanmar is beginning to replace its old nomenclature. The argument by those within Burma for their preference of the new name is that the name “Burma” is inclined too closely to the Burmans, the overwhelmingly dominant community in the country, at the cost of somewhat excluding its many different ethnic minorities. Even Aung San Suu Kyi now seems soft on the idea of a name change. Perhaps her refusal to use it all this while was only an extension of her opposition to the military junta and now the military is seemingly making a voluntary exit from the country’s political forefront, she thinks shifting her stance is legitimate.

The debate is relevant to Manipur for almost identical reasons. While there is nothing seemingly wrong with the name Manipur, what becomes problematic is the derivative term Manipuri which is supposed to signify all citizens of the state. The problem as in Burma is, “Manipuri” has for many reasons, tangible and intangible, come to signify chiefly the numerically dominant community of the state, the Meiteis. Although there are many, including most recently the chief minister, Okram Ibobi, tried to clarify that “Manipuri” signifies or should signify all domiciles of the state, the truth is, such rhetoric have never been much more than weak attempts at being politically correct. Even educated and self-proclaimed liberated citizens more often than not relapse into the old mindset and continue to use the terms “Meitei” and “Manipuri” as synonyms. So try as many would to make “Manipuri” have a more inclusive connotation, another section of the population which is not sensitive to the issue have continued and would continue to ensure that the clock is turned back and this divisive inference of the name remains.

The moot point is, why not think of a more inclusive name for Manipur to which all the peoples of the state can identify with and share a sense of belonging. The overture would not be altogether novel even in this country. So many other states and cities have done so in the past. The state of Madras became Tamil Nadu and later on its capital city of Madras too became Chennai. Likewise, Calcutta became Kolkata, Poona became Pune etc. Come to think of if, the list of such changes of nomenclatures of places in India in recent times is indeed long. Manipur has many ancient names that predate the nomenclature “Manipur”. Of this many are also what other ancient feudal principalities in the region gave it. The new name, if at all, does not have to be any one of these, but preferably an imaginatively conceived one which draws from the place’s ancient heritages as well as modern challenges. The intent is to ensure a sense of belonging and identification to one and all in the state. If on the other hand, as the chief minister in his recent speech said, it becomes possible for everybody to internalise the notion of “Manipuri” as indicating not just the dominant community but every son of the soil of Manipur, then there cannot be a better way. However, as of now, this effort is not making much headway, all because of chauvinists amongst the dominant community as well as rabid and frenzied ghetto mentality of many amongst the minority communities.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/whats-in-a-name/

There is a tendency in Manipur for things to always return to square one. The avenue for a way out of this depressing stagnancy eludes the imagination of one and all, including our leaders, intellectuals and the numerous NGOs in the field of social works. The shared obsession seems to be to analyse, dissect, scrutinize and then either rubbish or glorify the past compulsively and then blame each other or else some external agency or the other for all the misery and misfortune that is everybody’s fate. Maybe there is some truth in this vision but it certainly cannot be the whole truth. To think this is so would be to reduce the social organism that we all are part of, to a simplistic mechanics of stimulus and responses only. And this we know cannot be, for the being and the soul of any society is far more complex, and we would contend, infinitely so. The difficulty in sizing up a society or its mores completely lies in this complexity and not to any attributable flaws of the past, as the current intellectual tradition in social analysis in the state seems to suggest. If social issues were so clear cut, and there were no ambiguities about remedial measures, most social problems ought to have disappeared by now everywhere in the world. The greatest thinkers have discovered, or others discovered after they are long gone, that this has never been the case and cannot ever be so as well.

The linearity of our social analyses has had some very serious consequences. For instance we seem to be a society which sees salvation in the past, at the cost of even ignoring the future. From the point of view of this limited linear vision, this is totally understandable. At least in its structure as a chronological sequence of events, there is a definitiveness about the past and this makes it comparatively simple to grasp, or at least it does not make it seem out of grasping distance. We would not say the same thing about the substance that gave form to this structure, but even here the same definitiveness associated with past events thins out the desperation to get the diagnosis right. The unfortunate thing is, this approach in our effort to come to grip with the past, is often extended to our quest for an understanding of the future. This, we would contend is flawed, for one thing there is nothing linear or definite about the future. In fact, the biggest flaw in historical materialism of the Marxist variety is precisely this linear and deterministic view of history and the future. This modernist outlook it seems is infectious, and hence our problem solving efforts have seldom acknowledged that the future is about discovering previously unknown and unexplored equations. The foundations of our mainstream as well as the numerous prevalent alternate politics today have never been built on any such broad platform, negating in the process the well known, one line definition of politics as “art of the possible”. Unlike the past which is a dead process and circumscribed in time and memory, the field for the future is wide open. We cannot erase the Chahi Taret Khuntakpa chapter in our history, but creative vision of the future can prevent similar historical catastrophes.

While we cannot possibly forget our past, or ignore what we have inherited from it, we do feel there is an urgent need for our society to tone down some of its claustrophobic obsession with the past and develop a vision of the future that is not everything about undoing the past or based on any utopian ideal, but in the light of it as precisely “an art of the possible”. Only when this understanding becomes the standard, realistic terms for resolutions to most of our conflict situations, both internal and external, can begin to dawn. If the question is about past wrongs and their impacts on the present and the future, surely as creative, autonomous beings that all human individuals are, we can overcome these impacts. In structural terms, democracy guarantees this possibility. In spiritual terms too, the prison of “coloniality” of even formerly colonized worlds, cannot contain this same creativity that gives the individual the capability of sizing up his predicament and affect the changes necessary to overcome that state of mind. It is depressing that our public discourses seldom have approached the future without the past as the sole measuring tape. Let our future go beyond the status of being just a response to our past.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/art-of-the-possible/

Manipur’s hope horizon seems to be ever fading. As it stands today, there aren’t many reasons to be optimistic about the place’s future. Something just did not click in the shift of our economy from the largely agrarian setup to urbanised world of professionals of today’s modern world. Perhaps it is because the shift was planted and not a result of inner pressures and needs, that the growth of our society, physical as well spiritual, has ceased to be organic. In fact, it has resulted in the death, or at least dwarfing, of the spirit of enterprise and adventure that have compulsively driven the engine of civilizations through human history. There seems to be an atrocious lack of compulsion in our society today to push the frontiers of knowledge and skill any further. This is true metaphorically as well as literally. The basic need to prove to oneself one’s own vitality at every point of time seems to be on the receding path. Why do people climb Mount Everest when they might well be lazing around in the comfort of their drawing rooms watching TV? Why do people voluntarily put themselves into life threatening situation and waste immense amount of energy and adrenaline to come out of them in the name of adventure sports? Why do people need to walk uncharted territory even when there are paved and tested roads they can comfortably cruise on? Existentialist writers have a nice way of explaining things. According to them, one of the greatest and perennial battles that man has necessarily to fight is against life’s essential boredom. But this battle has also been the source of much of his enlightenment, in the material as well as intellectual spheres of his activities. Possibilities have in this way have always opened up where there seemed none and remained unlimited.

In Manipur, it is this spirit of enterprise that has suffered a sad demise. The result is an almost total stagnation and an all pervasive ennui. But the consequence does not end at just this claustrophobic state of stagnation. It also means the circumspection of the limits of expanding our horizon of mental and physical growth. This consequence is already being felt today. Because it has remained without growth all the while, our job market today has become totally saturated. This no matter the government’s skill in creating jobs where there are no need for them at all. According to the records in the employment exchange, there are nearly four lakh educated unemployed in the state today, and with our colleges and university churning out more degree holders every year, the number can only multiply. We repeat, degree holders, and often nothing more. If the condition is this today, we can well imagine the problem before the next generation of job seekers, and degree holders. We think it is time our job seekers really started seeking jobs instead of waiting for them to land on their courtyards. Meanwhile, it is also time our leaders started getting bored with what they have been doing for the past many decades. For once they ought to start thinking of ways to be innovative. Instead of just power, chairs, portfolios and more power…. they ought to consider the attractiveness of adjectives like creative, farsighted, visionary etc., used to qualify them and their work. We for one think they ought to consider these as the most primary values and qualities to aspire for. If they are able to use the power in their hands to inject some vim back into our education system, enterprise into our job market, and most of all confidence in our youth that diligence always pays and that only this can bring back the vision of a brighter future into our horizon, they would have etched their names in the hearts of everyone in the land and its history. They would have also ceased to be such big bores.

On a more positive note, let us take note that the Assembly elections are approaching. Let this refreshed mandate be the flagging off point for a new approach to politics on the part of our political leadership, and also that of a new attitude of the general public as well. Let this attitude be the characteristic new intent with which the electorate as well as those contesting the elections approach the new challenge.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/virtues-of-boredom/

The naked protest by some shameless men on the day the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh and the Chairperson of the United Progressive Front, UPF, government at the Centre, Sonia Gandhi, was without doubt one of the most obnoxious scenes ever witnessed in the state this year. Not the least, it trivialised the July 15, 2004 landmark naked protest by elderly women in front of the Kangla Gate, in the wake of the alleged custodial rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama by the Assam Rifles. We are appalled that the Manipur People’s Party, MPP, allowed its fair name to be used by these thick-skinned protestors. Rather than do the party, which incidentally is on an unchecked nosedive in popularity over the past decade or so, any good, it further soiled its reputation. What it did not realise was, such incivility is taboo even in hospitality extended to bitter adversaries in any civilised society. What the MPP also did not seem to care to take note is also that the Prime Minister did not come to the state as a Congress party functionary, but as the Prime Minister. This being the case, in the detestable public tantrum of its party workers, the party has also brought down the esteem of the state and its people considerably before the eyes of the world. For this reason, if the party has any modicum of decency left, it must tender its unqualified apology to the people of Manipur in particular and to the visiting dignitaries who were a guest of the state during their short visit.

We would also like to ask what the state’s law enforcers were doing when this lowly and distasteful protest took place? Have they forgotten there is something as public decency they have to ensure? Or have they come to believe the streets of Imphal are fit to become a nudists’ paradise? Henceforth, would anybody or everybody be allowed to walk around naked on the streets without attracting retribution from the law? Unlike the women protestors in 2004, who were defying the law, shouldering the responsibility of taking forward the near universal outrage in the state at the manner in which Manorama was found murdered after arrest, we are certain this group of shameless men protestors were merely interested in attracting cheap attention and not challenging the law. We see no reason why laws on public decency should not be slapped on them even now. If not anything else, this would at least remind everybody that the law of the land does have a definition on what the limits of indecent public behaviours are.

The other question that arose is, should the media have ignored the despicable protest altogether? Our opinion is, as long as the pictures are not allowed to get abhorrently graphic, or else the coverage of these events have voyeuristic intents, the media as the mirror of the society has a responsibility of bringing to the fore all the unusual things that happen in the society. This is with the purpose of alerting both the public as well as the authorities of these events. It would facilitate appropriate public opinion on the happenings in the state, as well as nudge the authorities to make legal interpretations of these events so that appropriate and proportionate legal actions can be contemplated and executed. It is important that the state authorities take legal implication of all public affairs seriously. It is precisely by their refusal to shoulder this responsibility that today the awe and respect that the law should command amongst the general public, has virtually disappeared. Hence, practically anybody, including paid employees of the government, who wants to indulge in disruptive activities, does not think twice of legal consequences before going ahead. And now, over and above disruptive strikes, bandhs and blockades, grossly indecent protests are coming to be allowed. There have been so many complaints by the chief minister, Okram Ibobi, himself that development works in the state are stalled by these disruptive protests. He should also consider the thought that it is the government’s own lethargy and reluctance in appropriate and timely application of the law in dealing with these activities which is encouraging anybody and everybody to take the law into their own hands.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/uncouth-and-distasteful/

The naked protest by some shameless men on the day the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh and the Chairperson of the United Progressive Front, UPF, government at the Centre, Sonia Gandhi, was without doubt one of the most obnoxious scenes ever witnessed in the state this year. Not the least, it trivialised the July 15, 2004 landmark naked protest by elderly women in front of the Kangla Gate, in the wake of the alleged custodial rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama by the Assam Rifles. We are appalled that the Manipur People’s Party, MPP, allowed its fair name to be used by these thick-skinned protestors. Rather than do the party, which incidentally is on an unchecked nosedive in popularity over the past decade or so, any good, it further soiled its reputation. What it did not realise was, such incivility is taboo even in hospitality extended to bitter adversaries in any civilised society. What the MPP also did not seem to care to take note is also that the Prime Minister did not come to the state as a Congress party functionary, but as the Prime Minister. This being the case, in the detestable public tantrum of its party workers, the party has also brought down the esteem of the state and its people considerably before the eyes of the world. For this reason, if the party has any modicum of decency left, it must tender its unqualified apology to the people of Manipur in particular and to the visiting dignitaries who were a guest of the state during their short visit.

We would also like to ask what the state’s law enforcers were doing when this lowly and distasteful protest took place? Have they forgotten there is something as public decency they have to ensure? Or have they come to believe the streets of Imphal are fit to become a nudists’ paradise? Henceforth, would anybody or everybody be allowed to walk around naked on the streets without attracting retribution from the law? Unlike the women protestors in 2004, who were defying the law, shouldering the responsibility of taking forward the near universal outrage in the state at the manner in which Manorama was found murdered after arrest, we are certain this group of shameless men protestors were merely interested in attracting cheap attention and not challenging the law. We see no reason why laws on public decency should not be slapped on them even now. If not anything else, this would at least remind everybody that the law of the land does have a definition on what the limits of indecent public behaviours are.

The other question that arose is, should the media have ignored the despicable protest altogether? Our opinion is, as long as the pictures are not allowed to get abhorrently graphic, or else the coverage of these events have voyeuristic intents, the media as the mirror of the society has a responsibility of bringing to the fore all the unusual things that happen in the society. This is with the purpose of alerting both the public as well as the authorities of these events. It would facilitate appropriate public opinion on the happenings in the state, as well as nudge the authorities to make legal interpretations of these events so that appropriate and proportionate legal actions can be contemplated and executed. It is important that the state authorities take legal implication of all public affairs seriously. It is precisely by their refusal to shoulder this responsibility that today the awe and respect that the law should command amongst the general public, has virtually disappeared. Hence, practically anybody, including paid employees of the government, who wants to indulge in disruptive activities, does not think twice of legal consequences before going ahead. And now, over and above disruptive strikes, bandhs and blockades, grossly indecent protests are coming to be allowed. There have been so many complaints by the chief minister, Okram Ibobi, himself that development works in the state are stalled by these disruptive protests. He should also consider the thought that it is the government’s own lethargy and reluctance in appropriate and timely application of the law in dealing with these activities which is encouraging anybody and everybody to take the law into their own hands.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/uncouth-and-distasteful/

Leader Writer: Hr. Angomcha
People of Manipur are perturbed by several mindless activities going around. No people in any part of the world might have experienced such adversity. All these days they have been withstanding the hardship of economic blockade which resulted in acute shortage of essential commodities. On the other side, they are terrorized by frequent bomb blasts in crowded public places. Such mindless activities do not serve any purpose rather rendering the common people in extreme suffering.

What was the outcome of economic blockade imposed on the National Highways for about four months? Were their demands fulfilled? The answer will obviously be “NO”. Then, is there any justification for such mindless act? The answer seems to be doubtful. The proverb “look before you leap” comes to mind vividly when people carry out mindless activities against the interest of the general public. The economic blockade as such is an undemocratic tool which has been used by some groups almost every time whenever they want to draw the attention of the government. Majority of the people are thrown into fire for the sake of some interest groups. This is really a mindless act. The agitators should have thought over and again on this matter before starting their agitation. Many might have desired to endorse their demand, but their undemocratic attitude has turned them away. The agitators would not be able to relish the “fruit” wholeheartedly. Their agitation seems to bear no fruit. Drivers and handymen were killed and injured during blockade. Many goods laden trucks were burned down for no reason. Can these brutal mindless acts be justified by their demand? If so, can they be able to achieve their goal? It is all futile…They should have looked before they leaped. The outcome of their agitation is only hatred and enmity amongst the harmonious groups. There is no single point that can justify the imposition of economic blockade for many months. The four-month-long agitation of demand and counter-demand has ended up meaninglessly. Their demand and counter-demand has perturbed the common people. Nothing good or significant has been achieved on the part of their agitation. The whole episode of economic blockade turns out to be “super flop”. Thank them at least. Manipur has been able to make headlines in both national and international media owing to this blockade. 

Coming to the point of terrorism in the state, people have witnessed bomb blasts in crowded public places every now and then. Such things are barbaric and inhumane. Nothing can justify such act of killing innocent people. Whether terrorists or revolutionaries, can their goals be achieved with the blood of common people? Why are they targeting innocent people when their main targets are far beyond their reach? The blasts at Sangakpam, Ragailong , Sangai festival, ISKCON, Alu Gali  and many other places killing and injuring several innocent people have turned this land into a bloody field. No one is certain about tomorrow. He may be alive at the present, but the next moment he might have left for his heavenly abode. Where can one live peacefully in this land of mindless people? They do not bother about the consequence of things. They do whatever that comes to their mind. The sense of brotherhood and oneness has been marred by these mindless acts. 

Things won’t be improved if people keep on indulging in mindless activities. Any agitation or revolution should have some significance on the society. Mindless and haphazard ways will only aggravate angst amongst the people. Untoward things could be averted if people consider the consequence first before taking up any venture. Always look before you leap.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/look-before-you-leap/

The bomb attack at the venue of the Sangai Tourism Festival was to say the least despicable. Nobody will argue that everything about the attack spelled lowly terrorism. It was not even a directly carried out attack and a proxy had to be used to courier the explosives close to the festival site. Most tragically, the courier, a rickshaw driver who apparently was given a tip for transporting the packet that contained the bomb was killed probably because the bomb exploded prematurely. Two other people nearby also received minor injuries but they have since been declared out of danger. Though the casualty figure was low, the intent was clear – it was meant to terrorise. To give the devil his due however, it would only be fair to say the bomb was meant only as a message of intent and not to cause any extensive damage, for the attack happened in the morning, when the fair was in process of preparation to open. Had attack happened in the evening hours, when crowds thronged the venue, the disaster would possibly have been unimaginable.

Though nobody has claimed responsibility, the dying man pointed his finger at some men who claimed they were from the KCP. But whoever was responsible, even if they did not mean to cause extensive mayhem, definitely have managed to damage the reputation of Manipur extensively. The tourism fair, it may be recalled had several foreign participants, and the stories they would be telling when they go back to their countries is hardly likely to promote a friendly picture of the state, one that would draw more participants from other countries in the coming years. It would also have turned back the clock of tourism prospects of the state by several years. Some of the foreign participants did make this point clear and were visibly upset with the security arrangement made for them that could be so easily breached.

The saving grace, as we see it was the manner the common people disregarded the message the attack was meant to convey. On the same evening of the attack, huge crowds turned out in perhaps the largest number in all the days of the fair and participated with no hint of fear, almost as if they were standing up together and in unison declaring they would refused to be terrorised anymore. The response would have been frustrating for those who intended to intimidate them. But beyond this sense of personal rebuff, we hope they too received the message the public was conveying to them – that they would stand by and cooperate with only those with whom they share a cause. The implications of this message should reach out much further to all organisations claiming to be fighting on behalf of the people. It should have made it clear to them that they have to constantly make the effort to sync with the aspirations and desires of the people. Otherwise, their ideologies and acts would sooner than later become reactionary in nature. This seems to be happening already to a great extent. Even for the remaining “responsible organisations”, there has come about a huge disconnect between their and the people’s outlook.

There was another positive message coming out of the sorry episode. In the defiance of the people to terror was clearly visible Manipur’s hope. It demonstrated the accusation that the people of the state have been subdued and intimidated into total submission to the will of the numerous subversive elements operating in the state, is not true to all extents. Perhaps a threshold has been reached and the people are beginning to assert their independence from fear once again. If this is so, no thought of the state at this moment can be more encouraging. As the condemnation messages from the Governor and Chief Minister also underscored, the will and determination loudly visible in the people’s defiance, is the new spark that can reignite the creative and constructive spirit the place so desperately need today. This flicker of positive light we hope would spell the beginning of a turnaround for the entire state to once again place it on the track of progress and prosperity – the promised land of “chak hongba, nga hongba” (land of plenty) of the place’s folklores.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/12/despicable-act/

It is good news that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi would be visiting Manipur on December 3. Imphal is being done up ahead of their arrival. Besides the wooden railings constructed on the sides of the roads the visiting leaders would be travelling on, the medians are being freshly painted and potholes filled. Something else Imphal which has not seen for the past many decades is becoming a familiar sight too – these roads are actually being swept daily. For the duration of the visit we can also imagine power supply suddenly becoming regular in the Imphal area, traffic made orderly, smartly uniformed traffic policemen and women out on the streets to monitor vehicle movements… We will also not be surprised at all if thousands of green houseplants and flowers in neat flower vases appear overnight along the planter spaces on the medians of relevant roads, only to disappear no sooner than the VVIPs leave the state. This can hardly be referred to as a facelift for Imphal, for the term facelift has a sense of a degree of permanence about it. No this is instead a whitewash Imphal is receiving. The muck below the thin veneer of cheap lime paint would be remaining as they always have been, to ultimately show up again once the veneer wears off.

It is perfectly in place to do a house cleaning to welcome guests, much more so if the guest is somebody who holds the number one job in the country and another who has been listed among the most powerful women in the entire world. This is a way showing respect. Any state would have done it. However, in other states it would have been genuinely about cleaning up the place so that the VVIP guests feel at home and welcomed. The entire operation would have been merely about doing a little extra of what has always been a matter of routine governmental exercise. In the case of Manipur, over and above all this, the other apparent motive is to cover up evidences of lack of governance. Here potholes are allowed to remain and not mended before until expand uncontrolled to sometimes leave entire stretches of roads in total ruins. Likewise, school children learn of very obvious and universal road signs such as the “Zebra Crossing” in school text books only for they never get to see them in their own living environments of their cities and towns. The list of such glaring lacunas would be endless, and since these have become so widespread, everybody has learnt not to miss them, and in fact come to consider these absences as normal.

While as we said the current Imphal cleaning up activities are perfectly in place and necessary, we do hope this was accompanied by a little more open hearted honesty. We wish the visiting dignitaries were also taken along some of the eroding and crumbling, but all the same extremely important roads in Imphal. As for instance, it would have been in perfect honesty to take the VVIPs to the Lamphel area along the RIMS road. Nobody in the Imphal or the state would disagree that this is one of the most important roads in the city for along it are some of the most important health facilities, including the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, RIMS hospital. Everyday thousands rush along it, many of them in desperate emergencies of life and death situations, yet this road has been in totally atrophy for the past many years. They could have also been taken for a short ride along National Highway-53, the second lifeline of the state so that they can have a sense of what Manipur is living through. This is not about inviting humiliating scorns, but of letting the visiting VVIPs get to have a feel of life in the state and what a harsh reality this condition is. But we know we are wasting our words. In all likelihood, the visiting leaders would return to New Delhi impressed by all that they have seen, eager to agree this state is indeed a “little paradise” where the “gods took to dancing”. What probably would not have crossed their minds while the image of Manipur lasts for those few valuable hours in their memories before they fade amidst all their other engaging concerns, is that though they were in Manipur, they may not have seen Manipur at all.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/unseen-manipur/

The blockade ended but let it be noted, it was not ended. There is a subtle difference in the two. The first implies the phenomenon ended on its own, and the second indicates the inaction of those who ought to have been active agents in bringing about the conclusion. Understandably the sigh of relief at the development is muted in the state. This is largely on two counts. For one, it is still uncertain if the one or the other of the two parties either demanding or opposing the formation of the Sadar Hills district would decide to resume the blockade, after all the issue that led to the blockade is still to be resolved. The government is clearly playing the delaying game, promising to grant the new district to those demanding it but not going ahead with the promise to ensure those opposing it are not displeased. It must however know what the limits of this tight rope walking are. Inaction is no great virtue. It can in fact lead to disaster. Prominent in the other reason behind the lack lustre response to the lifting of the blockade is a new and widespread cynicism. In the absence of the government as the moderator of public affairs, including disruptions caused to them, the people have resigned to the fact that whatever comes has to be taken at its own stride without either being carried away by emotions or expecting too much good to come out of them. This general state of mind is a gift of the present government to its subjects.

It is unimaginable that the blockade of the state for nearly four months ended because those behind the blockade changed their minds of their own accord and not because the government compelled them to do so. There would be those who argue that the government knew the strength of the common men and was using this knowledge to test those who would hold the state to ransom. We would argue this is a lame excuse for an inability or unwillingness to shoulder the responsibility to ensure public welfare. For any government worth its salt, it is equally important to know where this responsibility lies. What was overlooked in this dependence on the resilience of the common man is the sufferings and losses the latter have had to suffer, and thereby the whole state. One does not have to be an economist to gauge a rough estimate of the extent of this loss. Wage earners and small businesses with little deficit absorbing power would have felt this loss most excruciatingly, mobility of self employed people too would have been reduced considerably causing drastic drops in their productivity and the list can go on.

The fact also is, there is no deterrent ever offered by the government that would make habitual agitators think twice before resorting to disruptive and illegal agitations. Be it strike by government employees or else public nuisances caused by street politicians of all hues, the government has done nothing more than watch. A decade or so ago, even if these disruptive agitations were not altogether preventable, there were at least shows of disapproval and resistance by the government. As for instance, on days of strikes called by insurgents and other organisations which command fear and awe amongst the public, the government resorted to counter measures by making an effort to have all its employees attend work. On occasions, the government was known for organising vehicles to pick up  its employees from appointed spots and even arranged for the latter to stay overnight in their respective offices ahead of the strikes so that office attendance the next day was not thin. Today even such symbolic shows of disapproval have been abandoned. Under the circumstance, the fatalism which has come to dominate general psychology is only understandable. A strike called by anybody, even by little known organisations, and the streets in the capital city Imphal would wear a deserted look. Can the government now at least begin to make amends on this front and think of becoming a little more proactive? Can it come out and make it known that it means business when it says disruptive strikes and blockades will not be allowed ever again?

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/cynicism-abounds/

The blockade ended but let it be noted, it was not ended. There is a subtle difference in the two. The first implies the phenomenon ended on its own, and the second indicates the inaction of those who ought to have been active agents in bringing about the conclusion. Understandably the sigh of relief at the development is muted in the state. This is largely on two counts. For one, it is still uncertain if the one or the other of the two parties either demanding or opposing the formation of the Sadar Hills district would decide to resume the blockade, after all the issue that led to the blockade is still to be resolved. The government is clearly playing the delaying game, promising to grant the new district to those demanding it but not going ahead with the promise to ensure those opposing it are not displeased. It must however know what the limits of this tight rope walking are. Inaction is no great virtue. It can in fact lead to disaster. Prominent in the other reason behind the lack lustre response to the lifting of the blockade is a new and widespread cynicism. In the absence of the government as the moderator of public affairs, including disruptions caused to them, the people have resigned to the fact that whatever comes has to be taken at its own stride without either being carried away by emotions or expecting too much good to come out of them. This general state of mind is a gift of the present government to its subjects.

It is unimaginable that the blockade of the state for nearly four months ended because those behind the blockade changed their minds of their own accord and not because the government compelled them to do so. There would be those who argue that the government knew the strength of the common men and was using this knowledge to test those who would hold the state to ransom. We would argue this is a lame excuse for an inability or unwillingness to shoulder the responsibility to ensure public welfare. For any government worth its salt, it is equally important to know where this responsibility lies. What was overlooked in this dependence on the resilience of the common man is the sufferings and losses the latter have had to suffer, and thereby the whole state. One does not have to be an economist to gauge a rough estimate of the extent of this loss. Wage earners and small businesses with little deficit absorbing power would have felt this loss most excruciatingly, mobility of self employed people too would have been reduced considerably causing drastic drops in their productivity and the list can go on.

The fact also is, there is no deterrent ever offered by the government that would make habitual agitators think twice before resorting to disruptive and illegal agitations. Be it strike by government employees or else public nuisances caused by street politicians of all hues, the government has done nothing more than watch. A decade or so ago, even if these disruptive agitations were not altogether preventable, there were at least shows of disapproval and resistance by the government. As for instance, on days of strikes called by insurgents and other organisations which command fear and awe amongst the public, the government resorted to counter measures by making an effort to have all its employees attend work. On occasions, the government was known for organising vehicles to pick up  its employees from appointed spots and even arranged for the latter to stay overnight in their respective offices ahead of the strikes so that office attendance the next day was not thin. Today even such symbolic shows of disapproval have been abandoned. Under the circumstance, the fatalism which has come to dominate general psychology is only understandable. A strike called by anybody, even by little known organisations, and the streets in the capital city Imphal would wear a deserted look. Can the government now at least begin to make amends on this front and think of becoming a little more proactive? Can it come out and make it known that it means business when it says disruptive strikes and blockades will not be allowed ever again?

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/11/cynicism-abounds/