Capitalising on factionalism : Dangerous and disturbing
- Sangai Express Editorial :: August 30, 2013 -

Factionalism.

Time to study this apart from the conventional understanding of a group splitting vertically or some disgruntled members breaking away from the parent group and floating their own group, under the same name, with a prefix or a suffix.

Factionalism is obviously about breaking up or parting ways and then engaging in a battle of turf or one upmanship, but it is this and much more now.

The break up or split could be due to any reason and the North East, Manipur in particular, has had a long history of splits and factionalism which has claimed a number of lives.

This is worrying and a disturbing trend indeed and to be sure there will be power mongers and mischievous players out there who will try to capitalise on such a situation.

And so it is that it is not uncommon to hear allegations of one faction accusing the State agencies, including the Army, the Assam Rifles and even the State police of siding with one such faction to take the fight to the other rival group.

An accusation which may be hard to prove, but which certainly does not sound that far fetched. In this land, where the concept of law and justice is warped and is delivered more often by the barrel of the gun, anything is possible.

When elements, the hard core criminals, lodged inside the high security wall of Sajiwa Jail could take on the name of a faction and carry out its activities, then the possibility of this idea catching on with others, not excluding the State agencies, cannot be ruled out.

The dirty, murky world of politics which factionalism can spawn is frightening.

Stretch this argument a little more and the possibility of groups which are in peace pacts with the Government, carrying out clandestine operations such as extorting from the public and abducting for ransom under a freshly coined name cannot be swept under the carpet.

The trend of factionalism then can be said to serve two or three purposes.

One, it weakens the group which took up arms to wage a bush war against the Government.

Two it offers ample opportunity for someone to gather some lumpen elements and form a rag tag army under the name of one of the factional groups and carry out their agenda.

And three it can also give room to the State agencies to take advantage of this situation and carry out their designs and later take on the name of one of these groups and claim their hands in any acts of commission or omission.

There is no question of jumping the gun and the need to dwell on this topic or subject has been fuelled by the claims made by a group, a group which has taken on the name of a break away group, in the killing of van driver Gyanendro on August 18.

In the absence of any concrete evidences or proofs, it is not the case of The Sangai Express to say whether the group was actually behind the killing or not.

Yet at the same time, the lingering doubt that their name could have been used to ease public pressure is something which cannot be written off that easily.

There are reasons for the doubts that continue to linger.

For once why did it take so long for an armed group to own up to a killing, spelling out the reason in the process.

In other instances, claims have always been made at the soonest time possible or at times no claims are made, if any armed groups are behind any acts of violence.

Surely the trend or rise of factional groups has given ample room to politically exploit the situation and carry out an agenda behind the veil of this factionalism trend.

It is this which the people should be aware of.

Factionalism is a reality which the people of Manipur have had to suffer for long, but when the hands of politics start to pull the string of factionalism then things can only get murkier and dirtier.

Not a healthy sign and to be sure the media fraternity in Manipur can expect stormy days ahead.