An appeal to the people

By: N Shanta*

"Every protest is for a better tomorrow" as said but are we getting this tomorrow exactly what & how we wanted?

I am writing on behalf of all those people who cannot speak up because they are stuck in between the Government Commandos and the Naharol.

What I am interested in is the life of the people and nothing else if we have been fighting for the victim of a crime which we call fake encounter in Manipur we are very much right and it should be supported by the people (including women and children).

What kind of encounter is called fake?

Is it that what the government police or commando do?

Or is it every people killed unknowingly?

If yes than I believe that what the Naharols do is not only a fake encounter but also an open killing. But why is it treated different with encounter is it because they do not get caught in picture that they are not being protested with such high degree.

Killing in any form should be protested with the same degree. Protesting activist in today's date talk of UN law in many ways is it not appllicable to the Naharol when they kidnap people, kill and throw them on road side, when they call and threaten people that next day you will get killed.

I would only appeal for myself as a victim will only understand a victim, that if I get killed for writing this article. Dear brothers and sisters please protest (if anyone has to) with the same degree whether if I get killed by commando or Naharol after all life is a life.

Seeing the Tehelka Exposure one can imagine that how those families have felt whose loved ones have been killed in front of them or they were picked up and next day they found them dead. The person killed in this encounter was also human but aren't the people picked up from their home late night by those naharol, hurling grenade in residents area, kidnapping them for not agreeing to them same human being?

We need to bring the same degree of protest for any killing as one blames the other for such deed.

We also need to justify the protest we have been doing for instance are we on the right track any kind of protest must be recovery oriented as mass protest is going to damage our infrastructure for a while. We should make sure that we do not let others take advantage of the situation we are in.

But are we on the right track doing this the way. I believe that Manipur is having a democratic government and Ibobi is just the peak of the Ministers and every so called Kendra has a Minister (MLA) and Leikai has a worker of the MLA/workers of the MLA.

Since we have protested so much and the Government which we want to see falling or the Chief Minister whom we want to see resigned is not resigning why?

What do we require to get a CM removed from the Government in a democracy?

I believe the ministers are the culprits because by now they know that the local people whom they have been elected by has gone against their leadership , we do not trust the leader they stand for anymore so why are they still stuck supporting the CM if the people do not want ? Don't they feel the pulse what the people feel or see how people are acting. Do they think that it's just IBOBI that we are after and they feel they are not culprit?

If this is what they are feeling they should be aware because they play equal role in running the Government and by now Mr Punshiba must have visited one or the other minister to save himself from the scene. If we want IBOBI to be removed than the ministers have to act (or they don't find any one capable than Ibobi).

Protesting is the right of the people but are we doing the right protest or are we damaging ourselves damaging daily activity of an already overdraft state.

It is worth mentioning that once I went to the SBI secretariat Imphal to transfer some money but it was closed because it was bandh/general strike.

It might be very simple for a person in Manipur but not for me, as I thought a high security place where the SBI is and the Police headquarters around moreover a heavily guarded Bank it is. The Guard when enquired just told me that it was a Bank Holiday, when I insisted he told me that he have orders from the manager.

So easily that he gave the statement Bank Holiday when Bank holiday means a lot and he did not knew it but the fact was that the Bank had jammed the transaction of the day.

How much money would have the state loss that day?

This is how we damage our self, our knowledge for everything is useless when we do not act properly when Sunday is working half day in Banks to support transaction Bandh was a Bank Holiday and a lay man would have went off thinking Bank is actually a holiday today.

What I wanted to relate with this incident is that are we giving the government and others a chance to defeat us by going through unplanned protest for instance closing down of schools what will we loose if we close them for 1 year, all the generation will lose one year, the carrier prospect, the job deadline when they grow, the moral of being a student, the money government will pay for the teachers, the plan which government made for education during that time and many more things.

So it is fare enough, that when we protest we think what we are losing. We should protest and will protest but please people can we find the right way so that we can also develop along with other states. We keep shouting that we don't want IBOBI what does the minister who voted him CM did? Are they still with him why? Every worker, if they wish IBOBI should go than should go and ask the local MLA why so much time has been consumed doing this?

Why does it turn up as a civil war whenever we have a problem like this? This is for us to think what we want what kind of society we want?

Do we pride ourselves with all the civil war like protest?

Do we think what we are loosing?

Is there a better way to do this?

We need to think over it again, being the leader of the society it is the moral responsibility of not the CM but the MLA's to make sure that they feel what they are making us loose.