First the valley and now the hills : The all round trust deficit
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 22 2015 -
First it was the valley area. Now it is the hills which are burning.
But who cares ? Everyone seems bent on pursuing their own agenda, leaving the fate of the land and the people in peril.
The most critically hit will of course be the young students.
After days of street protest and stand off with the Government agencies, schools have re-opened in the valley area but who will compensate for the time lost ?
Now it is the turn of the hill districts, particularly Churachandpur, where nine people have died in the protest against the three Bills passed by the State legislative Assembly.
Tough to digest the point that so far the State Government does not seem to be taking up any concrete measures to speak to the people, who feel they have been wronged.
An issue which should have united the people has today become the bone of contention among the three major communities, settled here.
The August 31 Bills may have been the immediate factor for the present stand off that one sees all over the State, but it should also be clear to all that these Bills were the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back.
The present stand off in the hill districts is a clear testimony that there is all round trust deficit amongst the different communities in the State and this is a shame.
No magic formula to settle the present impasse, but the first thing that needs to be realised is the plain fact that nothing is right in the relationship amongst the different communities.
A shame it is for the people of all communities.
It would also be in the fitness of things for everyone to admit to the fact that it is the lack of work culture amongst the indigenous people of the land, which is largely responsible for the large scale entry of non-local people into the State.
How many have actually acknowledged this bare fact ?
As repeated many times in this column, Manipur has tremendous pull factor.
And when a vacuum is created it is but natural for others to come in and try to fill up the vacuum. This is what has been happening in Manipur for decades.
The tragedy is, nobody seem to have addressed this important point.
Granted no one would aim to become a barber or a cobbler, but these are vocations which can easily be taken up by the numerous unemployed young people one sees in every leikai.
Instead of wasting their time doing nothing all day, some of the young people can definitely take up these vocations.
Once these vocations are taken up by the local people, then it is unlikely that Manipur will see so many outsiders arriving here to earn a living.
The primary reason for the large scale entry of non-local people is the easy availability of work here.
Time for the people to come to the realisation that they can no longer afford to create more vacuum.
It is also right that some confidence building measures are taken up by all the people themselves.
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