Faithfuls and sons of the soil: Dancing God
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 28 2011 -

If Kerala is "God's Own Country" then Manipur is truly "A Place Where God Took to Dancing" and why not ? God or for that matter anyone can take to dancing and that too the dance of each and every single community residing in Manipur only when there is enough leisure time at hand.

And leisure time, God certainly must have, since his faithful followers have decided to step in and relieve him of the numerous duties and the duties include not only listening to the prayers of the faithfuls but also deciding the quantum of punishment that a sinner should receive.

The process of deciding who is a sinner and who is not has also been taken over by the faithfuls and literally speaking, God today has a lot of free time in his hand and whoever coined the phrase, "A Place Where God Took To Dancing" deserves a special mention for the ability to anticipate things.

Or maybe he or she is related to Nostradamus. With his faithful children having taken over the responsibility of not only dispensing with justice but also wearing the uniform of the policeman and the executioner, God is left with nothing but to dance and dance.

This is how situation has been like in Manipur for ages and while God has certainly earned a vacation, a long one at that, justice continues to be delivered in the most atrocious of manner. If it is not a bullet in the head then it is the club or any other implement that comes handy such as the spade or an axe to deliver the killing blow.

For the more fortunate ones, it could mean making it to the pages of the newspaper and let off the next morning with a bullet in the leg or calf or knee.

Talk about getting one's share of publicity without having to work for it. In a sense it is not only God who has been granted a long and unearned vacation but also the Government and its agencies.

With the sons of the soil stepping in to ensure social order and maintain the sanctity of the slogan, "Power Flows From the Barrel Of The Gun," the Government too does not have to worry about dispensing with its duties.

The sons of the land are there to do whatever is needed to save the land and the people from moral degradation and this should be an ideal situation for God to not only take off his shoes and dance away but also to come and roost here for the whole year.

What is more, the faithful children cannot be faulted on not paying their due obeisance to God, for all the killings, the battle with others and the very act of pulling the trigger of the gun are done with the name of the Almighty on their lips.

Halleluya !...Om Shanti Om ! This is the reason why Manipur today sees so many instances of the hapless people appealing to the "concerned authority" to set things right whenever they feel their rights have been rudely snatched away from under their nose.

Welcome to the Court of the land where everyone can be taken to the docks. A system which aptly fits the observation of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, "This is a Court of law young man, not a Court of justice."

So while God has taken to dancing in a big way here, the dance beat has left the public a disoriented and confused lot and apart from the dance beat, another primary reason for leaving the people disoriented and confused is the presence of too many actors who have taken on the garb of God.

With so many playing God, it is therefore not surprising to see the people issuing appeals and prayers to identify which God is responsible for banging the gavel of punishment.

This punishment may range from facing the firing squad who have been given the standing order to shoot to kill or to maim by shooting at the leg. As newspapers are limited in number and cannot carry on the appeals for days on end, the people seeking the identity of the God player have to step outside the fourth estate and organise a dharna in their locality with bandhs and blockades being the icing on the cake !

Obviously the faithfuls, who have taken up God's works do not need lawyers and the statute books and this may be another reason why the people make it a point to question what mistakes a man or a woman has committed for the God players to pass the penalty of facing the firing squad.

If the mistakes are spelt out, it is customary for the people to keep quiet and forget the whole thing, for criticising the reasons given may amount to contempt of the ruling issued by the God players.

And mind you the penalty for this type of contempt may be steeper than the penalty for the contempt which is understood in places where there are no faithfuls or sons of the soil to take over the work of God.

And in a funny way the fear of the contempt clause transform the people into some sort of the jury members, though there is as yet no official designation for this post.

Given the fertile imagination of the God players and the sons of the soil, this shortcoming may soon be a thing of the past and a designated post for the jury members may come into place tomorrow or day after tomorrow or the day after the day after tomorrow..who cares anyway.

Since the law is not about justice but law and since the law is deemed to be blind, the God players and the sons of the soil may sometimes be forgiven if someone who comes too close to the target is also cut down by the flying bullets.

How can anyone blame a blind man for not seeing, never mind even if it kills.

So while the southern State of Kerala has become God's own country and tourists flock there to have a taste of the place where God resides, here in Manipur, the wisest move has been not to disturb the God while he or she or it is dancing.

Dancing is good exercise ! Leave it at that.