What Ails Manipur Post Dr Kishan

By Yumnam Rupachandra *

I knew Kishan briefly. He was everything his friends described and more. He had hope and he had vision and he knew what he wanted. These traits, by the way, are more than enough to get any one in Manipur killed. I guess he died for his belief, not willing to yield to whatever pressures his killers had put on him. His death may be brutal but it was honourable and I would not choose any less for myself. In his death he showed what several in their lives have failed. Even as we mourn his death we must salute his bravery, his willingness to sacrifice for what he believed. The war that he started must be won and every one more specially his young colleagues who have taken on similar task of changing Manipur must resist pressure the same way he did fully knowing if death do come their way in similar manner it will be an honourable one. It will, forever, be the better way of dying than death by Cholera.

In a brief meeting I had with Kishan he came across as someone committed to what he believed. When he joined the bureaucracy, I thought the intellectual community had lost one to the officialdom. Another young MCS officer whom I thought would be wasted was Yumnam Ranjan, who wrote ferociously if that is the word to describe his writings, on all issues confronting Manipur and that too with depth and understanding hard to come by. I liked listening to Kishan and reading Ranjan's pieces. And I thought what a lose but than I also thought if people like them do not jump into the cesspool of what Manipur administration has become who would bring about the change. They were the fresh blood needed by leukemia patients to survive. And at the end I felt happy, my own hope for a better Manipur revived.

Post induction I discussed a lot with Ranjan on what the future has stored for them and us. We discussed about how the then Chief Secretary Jarnail Singh was taking special interest in the new recruits. How he made them interact with older ones in his own office, in some occasions embarrassing few of them - the older lot. I guess the CS was trying to teach the new lot what not to be rather what to be. I am sorry if this is a hard commentary on the older folks but this was the impression I got when we, the media interacted with the CS on a few occasions.

Despite the Chief Secretary's euphoria at the new crop I did not for a moment believe that all new inductees into MCS/MPS and other cadres were, shall we say clean. But I did know several got in by their merit and had fire in them to want to do what is right and just. This made me ask Ranjan if there was a way to identify such officers and do a networking. I agreed to be a part of the network and together, perhaps we can push the agenda of a just and interference free administration.

Alas the network did not take off. Perhaps, just perhaps had the network been in place we would have known the problems Kishan was going through and even if we are unable to save him from his gruesome death it would not be as confusing and mysterious as it stands at this point in time.

The predicament that Kishan went through prior to his death is so far illusive but believe me when I say he is not alone in this predicament and many more continue to live not knowing if they would meet similar fate. This is what Manipur is today. Since the beginning of this year 90 people have been killed. Among them is Rishkanta, a sub editor with the Imphal Free Press. Now Kishan's name has been added to the ever growing list. This list is not likely to stop in the near future. Because none of us has decided it is time to stop. Each of us lives in our own cocoon of safety hoping and praying we are spared. Nothing about this system encourages us to be an upright citizen and take the Government by its horn or blow a whistle now and then. Because we know it will be all for nothing.

It is a fragmented society that we live in each with his own agenda, each on his own platform, with the word UNITY only on their lips. Yes it is a fragmented society we live in and it serves a lot of purpose except one - a unified search for a happy tomorrow. This leaves room for those dabbling in politics a wide berth to play a power politics and in Manipur sadly even the word Opposition has long since stopped having any meaning. Today's politics is not about bringing about good governance but is about sharing the spoils of power.

And what does that translate into lack of accountability, transparency, a law enforcement agency that has no clear cut security philosophy to speak of, a Government led by morally corrupt politicians, a bumbling bureaucracy inefficient and corrupt the list is long and you will have your own.

Add to this an incapacitated intellectual community pardon me my words, whose silence can only be damning. The most powerful voice when silent when needed most can do us as much harm as shrill ranting of bigots bent on pushing the wedge of division.

It's a state of crisis as it exists today but the manner the solution to this crisis is being sough leaves much to be desired. There is overwhelming indication that the Government is trying to buy its way out of the crisis rather than addressing it in its totality. In an unprecedented flurry of action it has made promises for everything material even bypassing several rules of law but have so far failed to convincingly say it will capture the perpetrators of the gruesome crime and give them a befitting punishment.

What it must understand is that people are looking forward to a responsive Government who will provide a secure environment which will ensure safety of the citizens and not ex gratias and jobs. People want the killers caught and punished period.

But this is not something that the Government is particularly good at. We still do not have a conclusive evidence of who killed Luningla Elizabeth or IFP sub editor Rishikanta. The CBI is still fumbling around in case of Elizabeth and we still do not know if the Government has handed over the case of Rishikanta to CBI as promised to the journalist community. The CBI has now become a good excuse for the State Government to wash off its hands from anything which is of inconvenience.

This is what we have before us. Kishan is no more but his body continues to be a tool for the people to wake up a slumbering administration. It will be folly to think of it as just another inconvenience.