Manipur’s Contradictions and Silence

Lucky Sapam *

Manipur assembly complex taken in the year 2012

All communities of Manipur should first shed the notion of its dominance and the influence it has on the affairs of the state right away. Everybody should embrace the idea of brotherhood and oneness of fraternity in its true sense and not just mere words alone. No single community should proclaim to be the sole guardian of Manipur and of other communities. Every community in Manipur should not over-estimate their strength and also they should not under-estimate the strength of others.

If the state has to remain united then there has to be some sort of compromise on all the sides. The past and history of Manipur is glorious and something to be proud of but now we cannot be living our lives in the past of Manipur, enjoying the deeds of our forefathers and claiming that we are well off and doing well at the moment. Times are changing and things have changed. Keeping these words “If you have lived, take thankfully the past for victory and history is written by the victors” in the background and looking ahead for the future in the direction of acknowledgement and mutual respect of one another could be a big step in achieving the bigger goals.

When there are contradictions, ideas come alive. No idea is completely false. What appears to us as false has an element of truth. The conservative or the reactionary section of Manipur is not to be frowned upon but instead we need to come in terms with them and look for the best solution only. After all, everybody is different and we need to accept and respect that.

Whatever may be the issue at hand; the sense of patriotism is still strong and is very much alive in the hearts of every Manipur people and will remain so forever. We can be radical in thoughts, pragmatic in approach and voice our concerns openly but we cannot let ourselves turn into an intolerable society. Of late there is a surge in the demand of schedule tribe status to the Meitei people as there is a strong perception by some section of the Meitei community of the deprivation of special provisions for them.

The demand now leads to its implications with various groups questioning the legitimacy of the demand. The legitimacy and validity of the claims can be debated over and over again. This is a major bone of contention and the mistrust starts right here. The indifference in reservation segregation and lack of clarity in the policies are also a major cause of division and dissection. The argument here is not about inclusion of certain community to the reservation bandwagon or removing of certain community from the reservation bandwagon but its more about the legitimacy in obtaining these special provisions. There are provisions for every citizen of India.

Indians enjoy various guarantees and has enormous freedoms and rights. There are special guarantees for the down trodden. There are special guarantees for citizen living below par with respect to social and economic status. These guarantees and provisions are provided to make sure that all the citizens are on the same level playing field. The ultimate goal of these provisions is to uplift the citizens and provide them with necessary support and help to lead a decent life.

Meiteis in general category should remember that reservation for schedule tribe and schedule caste is not a permanent guarantee. Personally I am not a big fan of the caste based reservation but instead I like the idea of economic based reservation.

There is complexity in every work we do and in every sphere of life in Manipur and there is an urgent need to bridge the trust gap between different communities of Manipur. And the poignant thing is that the Government of Manipur is not helping in achieving that. Any Manipur government now or in the future just cannot sit back and let the state function in an auto-pilot mode as Manipur is a different kind of state.

The Government should be more proactive and the leaders should have the zeal and the knowledge to run the entire state and bring in the confidence of all the people with them. When there is a communication gap between the leaders and the public then the sense of mistrust and scepticism creep into the minds of the people. So whenever there is a government scheme or an awareness of some opportunities or an announcement of some provisions by the government, there will always be an instant show of dissent and disagreement.

The point of dissent could be right or wrong but that’s not the point. The point is about the trust level. The present government is just like a newsreader on a television, they are very reluctant in admitting their mistakes and blunders. With all that in the background, on the otherside there is polarization.

Polarization is not an ideal way to achieve goals and aspirations. The sowing of polarised politics has started in Manipur and this is rather a dangerous precedent for a state like Manipur where any small issue could be the reason for a big disaster. The mindset of the people has been diluted and led in an eccentric way and we need to rectify that right away.

The ideal way to govern Manipur is a huge task and the leaders just cannot utter words and quotes without knowing the proper structure of different ethnic groups and the cultural differences of the whole state of Manipur. Diversity should always be in the foreground and not in the background. History judge a person and we can learn from history about people of Manipur who truly stood up for unity and for safe guarding the integrity of the state. But now I am afraid as there are very few these days.

Assumption of things is wrong (not in the context of science or maths). In life if we want to know the whole truth, we need to hear both sides of the story and our mind should be taken to task of analyzation, evaluation and coming to a logical conclusion by itself. The argument will never come to an end unless we come to the table and talk about it. In order to win some, we need to lose some. Voltaire says: “I will disapprove with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.

But in this world, there is no such thing as absolute freedom. Our lives are guarded with constraints. We cannot live in a world where there are no constraints. The level of constraints depends upon the situation and the environment we live in. Now that we are in the union of India, we need to follow the rules and regulations under the constitution of India. What I say or do should not be a matter of harm or interference to other people.

Now is the right time to rectify the misunderstandings, mistrusts and take in confidence the people of the entire state. We cannot let our emotions get mix up with our demands and aspirations. Any hasty decision by any entity will have an adverse affect on the entire state. Yes, there will be a solution but that solution will always be short term one.

Manipur need solutions that are long term. Unless we solve the basic problems, things will come crumbling down at later stage of time and we will be back to square one again. Everybody knows there are difficult issues and complicated affairs at hand. The first thing we need to do is to acknowledge that and then the solutions will come along the way.