Beware! Rumour mills at work
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 05 2015 -

An unseen hand with abundant resources and diabolic tendency seems to be playing with the ignorance and sentiments of the people.

Volumes and volumes of rumours which are nothing less than political propaganda are being churned out every single hour, if what the Information Centre for Hill Areas Manipur (ICHAM) reported to media was even half-truth.

Those elements have been taking full advantage of the socio-political polarization which has been plaguing the socio-political entity called Manipur.

They went to the extreme to whip up people’s sentiment and anger against the three particular Bills passed by the Manipur Legislative Assembly on August 31 and at the same time successfully demonized those people who have been campaigning for the three Bills all these years.

A pamphlet written in a local dialect and circulated in Churachandpur district headquarters, if what ICHAM reported was true, was not some ordinary rumour.

It has all the elements of a political propaganda and a deep rooted conspiracy to ignite conflagration between two indigenous communities of the land.

The pamphlet purportedly mentioned that no tribal can own land at Meitei dominated areas, no tribal can do business at Meitei dominated areas, there would be no opportunity for tribal people in Government employment, no tribal student would get admission in MBBS, Engineering and professional courses, no tribal can purchase land even at Lamka, no tribal student would get tribal scholarship, all the benefits that tribal people have been enjoying till date would be denied, tribal people who own land in Imphal would face lots of hardship, the State Government can confiscate land any time no matter he/she has land patta, tribal people would need to produce different types of documents to claim that they are the original settlers of Manipur, if anybody fails to produce the documents to claim that his/her forefathers came to Manipur before 1951, he/she would be categorised as ‘outsiders’, and even if you have these documents, it would be cross-checked with Government records.

This is a highly malicious and deliberate misinterpretation of the three Bills.

The immediate task of the Government is to track down those elements who have been churning out this false propaganda.

When you are told that all your rights and resources would be forfeited, you must raise a banner of revolt and this was exactly what the people of Churachandpur did in the night of August 31.

By circulating the obnoxious pamphlets, an unknown force has declared propaganda war not only against the Government but also against all the people of the land.

If one goes by the extensive violence seen in different parts of the State, the propaganda warfare is quite successful in convincing a large section of the people that the three Bills is a death-trap.

People are still unable to believe what the Government and their own representatives clarified about the Bills.

Such is the effect of the propaganda warfare. Such malicious propaganda must be stopped immediately before each and every community is ruined beyond redemption.

Some unknown force is victimizing each and every people of Manipur.

Now we must question the propaganda masters as well as the Government.

The Bills have not been given assent by the Governor and there is still time to re-examine and modify all the Bills, if necessary.

As stated by the Deputy Chief Minister, the Bills can be rectified/modified, if necessary.

Common people should stop believing every rumour and every piece of propaganda.

We are not boxers trained by different coaches to fight their political bouts in the ring called Manipur.

By specifically targeting the incumbent MLAs, the propaganda masters seemed to be exploring a political space for themselves at the cost of many innocent lives.

We must not overlook the fact that politics and propaganda often go hand in hand and when it comes to persecution of people or polarization of different ethnic communities, the combination of politics and propaganda is very lethal.