Concept of devlopment in Manipur superficial: Chaorel
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, September 24 2021: On the occasion of 43rd Raising Day of its armed wing, People's Liberation Army (PLA) which falls on September 25, the proscribed Revolutionary People's Front (RPF) has saluted the 'brave souls' who sacrificed their lives in the course of revolutionary movement for the motherland (Manipur) .

The outfit also bowed to the fellow citizens of Manipur and wished a prosperous time ahead.

On the occasion, RPF president Irengbam Chaoren noted with regret that COVID-19 pandemic has taken a very heavy toll on the entire humanity and conveyed solidarity to all those grieving families who either have lost a loved one or lost their ways of livelihood or were hit hard by this pandemic in any form.

RPF salutes and shows its sincere gratitude to brave frontline workers, volunteers and the common people who work continuously for the betterment of the state during this pandemic, Chaoren said in his message.

He said that peace and development has become the motto of this new world after the Cold War but the concept of development in Manipur is only superficial and it has no real meaning.

The pseudo-leaders of Manipur think that Manipur would not survive without external aid, more precisely from India.

After 70 years of annexation by India, there is no meaningful development in Manipur and it only testifies that the people are a group who do not have a firm stance.

People's livelihood in Manipur is dependent on the mercy and favour of the Indian government as the state's economic activities depend on them.

On top of this, the so-called leaders of Manipur have been sparing no efforts to drag the whole population into the Indian polity, traditions and ways of life.

This forlorn situation evokes a serious question as how long can people of the land protect their distinct identity, he said.

According to Chaoren, large numbers of Indian military forces are being deployed all over Manipur in the name of securing the border and they are being empowered with several draconian laws in the name of maintenance of law and order.

They (Indian military forces) have been keeping the entire population of Manipur under the barrels of their guns.

This is not a characteristic of a secure and peaceful society.

By employing these draconian and inhumane laws, many innocent citizens were killed, tortured, raped and forced to disappear involuntarily in the name of suppressing the revolutionary movement.

The Indian military forces are in Manipur to suppress people at gunpoint and destroy all the idea and spirit of liberation movement.

The real intention of the Government of India and deployment of their military forces is to colonise the state and divide its people by playing the divide and rule policies.

While observing that the major factor behind the rivalry and polarisation among the people of Manipur is the Indian government, the RPF president said that Manipur built up by forefathers with their blood and sweat who never surrendered to any foreign power, and thus known as 'the Heroic Country' would remain under Indian occupation for a very long time if people of Manipur do not stop this.

People need to go hand in hand and take part in the revolution to save the more than 2000 years old history of freedom and prevent imperialistic India from swallowing Manipur completely.

Even though Manipur at present is a neo-colonial state under India, it is inevitable to compete with other developing nations in the field of development.

In tandem with the liberation movement, it is an inevitable collective duty of all people of Manipur to contribute whatever each man and woman can towards the development of Manipur.

Unfortunately, in Manipur, there is no worthy government till todaythat can formulate plans which can make Manipur self reliant and this is a major obstacle on the path of development, Chaoren said.

From the year 1991, the Indian government devised a policy known as the 'Look East Policy' (now 'Act East Policy') purportedly with the objective of bringing economic development in the region.

After decades, the policy still remains an impressive plan in government files without achieving any noticeable progress on the ground.

The government of Manipur has not initiated any plan to secure a prominent place for Manipur within the scope of New Delhi's Act East Policy.

The 'puppet' state government seems totally uninterested in capitalising on Manipur's strategic location at the intersection of Asia's two major regions - South East Asia and South Asia, and right in the middle of Trans-Asian Highway.

The government seems rather interested in collecting some commissions from big business and corporate houses.

There is no indication as yet to designate Moreh and Jiribam as special economic zones and develop them as popular trading centres of the two major regions of Asia.

Instead, the Indian government is fooling the people of the state by building the Jiri Road (NH-37) and a few RCC bridges in the name of improving connectivity.

The government's claim of building Jiri Road as a major achievement sounds rather absurd and out of place in the present context.

People of Manipur living in the 21st century should not appreciate constructing a 210-km long sub-standard road (Imphal- Jiribam road) which has just 79 km in straight line distance.

On the other hand, the developing countries have been making all efforts to make roads shorter, notwithstanding topographical conditions, thus saving time spent in travelling.

To make the distance shorter, all the hurdles were rectified at any cost to make people more convenient and travel less time-consuming.

Road and transport infrastructure built in different countries under China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) were not welcomed by the Western countries especially USA, and the US projected the initiative as a 'Debt-Trap' set by the Chinese but the importance and benefits of the initiative were slowly acknowledged by other countries, including US President Joe Biden who proposed a BRI-like initiative to many democratic countries.

The G7 Summit held in June 2021 proposed and studied the B3W (Build Back Better World).

The US has already sanctioned $ 1.2 Trillion for the betterment of its road infrastructure, power supply and connectivity by following the footsteps of China's development.

On the other hand, Indian leaders, on whom the Manipur government reposes full faith for financial assistance, are always busy in playing malicious politics and they are always pre-occupied with winning elections and forming governments.

They don't have time for focusing their attention and resources on building transport and other infrastructure.

Same as the announcement made last year by PM Modi, the history of announcement of funds for development of infrastructures repeated itself this year too! On 15th August 2021, the PM announced a total amount of US $ 1.35 Trillion for development works but no Indians believe in such announcement.

Whereas the opposition parties instigate public outcry and civil unrest by citing such unrealistic announcements and empty promises just to overthrow the government, the ruling parties violate democratic principles and misuse democratic institutions to serve their interest and retain power.

The BJP government which secured only 31 percent votes in 2014 and 37.36 percent votes in the last election of 2019 went ahead with Demonetization, Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Farm laws, National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) and scrapped Article 370 on the ground that they (BJP) enjoy majority in the parliament.

However, there are still widespread protests in different parts of India as all these drastic steps of BJP government lacked consensus.

When China implemented 2485 reform plans in the last 40 years under the 'Opening Up' programme of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), the voice of the people was taken into consideration and there was general consensus on all the reform programmes.

As a result, China which was once a poverty-stricken country was successfully transformed into a 'moderately prosperous society'.

Unlike China which executes all policies and plans with single-mindedness, it would be impossible in India to formulate and execute any plan with consensus as there are 2698 political parties (recognised by the Election Commission of India) and every party has their own separate agenda and grabbing political power is the foremost priority of each and every one of them.

As there is constant rivalry among political parties under the Indian political system, consensus will always remain elusive.

In the name of selecting a suitable candidate, people who want to earn money through the corrupt Indian political system, try to drag honest people who work endlessly for the prosperity of the people, such as Civil Society Organizations (CSO) into the dirty and obnoxious path of electoral politics.

The CSOs must be aware of the system so that they do not fall prey to these dirty traps.

The RPF president further said the COVID -19 pandemic will be among us with new variants as stated by experts and so far there is not a single country which has successfully shielded itself from the virus.

All the safety measures taken by the government has not prevented the virus or the disease from spreading.

Due to these unprecedented situations, all the activities such as trade, education, travel, tourism and many other developmental activities have been put on halt.

The US and Europe which are fighting this virus with better infrastructure, superior medical equipment and monetary resources are still facing a very heavy brunt of the pandemic.

In Manipur too, the pandemic has been wreaking havoc and all of us are suffering the misery together.

To contain this disease, people must follow the SOP of COVID -19 and get vaccinated to stop further spreading of this dangerous virus: The situation is such that the general public, cannot simply sit back and watch what the government machineries, COVID warriors and frontline workers have been doing.

Everyone must now join the fight.

The government also must make necessary arrangements so that every person contributes in the battle against the deadly contagion.

For a small society like ours, the only way to contain the spread of this virus is to help each other and right the wrong done by each other.

By using this weapon, we must and we will win against this virus and continue our pre-pandemic peaceful life, Chaoren concluded his message.

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