Source: IMPHAL FREE PRESS
Posted: 2009-11-17

These are bad times for Manipur. A civil turmoil triggered off by the exposure by Tehelka that the July 23 BT Road killing of an ex-militant, Ch. Sanjit and a pregnant woman, Th. Rabina, as well the injuring of five others were the handiwork of police commandos after the police and government initially blamed the carnage to insurgents, has now nearly completed three months. As it also became clear after the Tehelka pictures, the murder of Sanjit was a deliberate staged encounter of an unarmed man already in the hands of the commandos. A stream of observers, ranging from ordinary citizens, to NGO activists to media personnel, have been visiting the state ever since. Apart from the obvious shock at the state of affairs, one other query comes almost automatically from them. How is it that the civil society organisations in the state are able to so doggedly sustain a public movement of such magnitude as the current stir, for so long? Is it organisational skill? Is it ability to identify people’s pulse and aspiration, and the commitment to stick by it? Or is it plain lack of governmental will to put things in order?
Perhaps it is a combination of all of these. But one never has been struck by the phenomenon as much as when one is confronted with these queries on them from bewildered observers from outside the state. Where does Manipur’s energy come from, both for destructive ends as well as for exquisitely creative ones? This is a question we should never lose sight of, for we deal here with a rich minefield which can be put to constructive or destructive use depending on how it is harnessed. But if the energy potential in this minefield is immense to the point of being awesome to detached observers, there is also a reciprocal lack of commitment to imaginatively deal with this inherent quality of the Manipur society by the governments that be. In other words, whatever else may be said of it, indications are that many of the civil society organisations are much better at identifying and aligning their causes with that of the inner pulse of the people. The minefield of energy inherent in the community is being tapped much more fruitfully by non-governmental bodies than the government. As for instance, if at any given point in time, the energy manifests as anger, the former is able to poise themselves as the vehicles for the delivery of this same anger. The government by contrast would take on a posture that denies the basis of this very energy and hence put itself in a position of confrontation with the people. Rather than attempt to give acceptable shape to the inner aspirations of the people, the approach has been in most cases, to deny these and instead introduce new moulds into which the people and their aspirations are expected to fit in. This is also done in the false picture of commitment to an overarching notion of loyalty to the larger nation state. What is also evident is, the sense that loyalty to nation of peripheral states and peoples is still not taken for granted and has to be proven, not once or twice but at every decision taken, is deeply ingrained in the psychology of the place. So when author and activist Arundhati Roy blasts the Indian nation, she is not anti-India. However if activist Yumnam Jiten were to be a little critical of the ways of the establishment, he gets the National Security Act, NSA, treatment.
Even in the current crisis, this pattern can be identified quite distinctly. The Manipur government has never actually tried to identify or even acknowledge the legitimacy of the general outrage of the people at the arrogant impunity with which government forces have been conducting their businesses. Instead from day one, it switched on to a denial mode. Hence according to it, there never has been a single staged encounter death in the state; no innocent has ever fallen victim to bullets of state forces; no state security personnel ever indulged in extortion etc. How long can such denials carry on without disgusting the people knowing full well it amounts to insulting their intelligence to say something that happened in front of their eyes did not happen at all? No doubt about it that these may not be happening as a rule, but at least admit exceptions have been there and these exceptions are increasing in frequency. Such an admission, and a commitment to rectify things would be a wonderful point to start a reconciliation process to all the trouble in this land.

 

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