Hostility versus hospitality : Curse of the sub-species
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 01 2011 -

Okay the bomb planted at RIMS OPD did not explode, but does this in any way make the act less unacceptable ?

Maybe the bomb was not meant to explode, as some of these elements who love playing God have the tendency to say with a sense of pride, would have put it, but so what ?

Or was the bomb meant to explode and extract the biggest human casualty possible ?

Either way it does nothing except say something about the growing culture of planting bombs in public places, firing at the residence of a Government official or a trader, serving extortion notices as if the hard earned money of the people are interests payable for a loan taken earlier etc.

For all the shortcomings that may be associated with public health institutions, a hospital which also doubles up as an institution such as RIMS, is a place which is there to care for the sick and the dying and it is only expected from humans to reciprocate this.

There is something sacrosanct about a hospital, for it is very often the last and final abode for an individual, from where the journey to the other world begins.

It is a place where the milk of human goodness flows and it is in respect for the role and duty it dispenses that hospitals are earmarked as off target zones even at the height of battles or wars. In as much as a hospital is the last resting place for the dying, it is also the symbol of hope and optimism from where the life giving touch of the men and women in white may be expected.

A place where the dying may pass away with a sense of dignity and a place where a new ray of hope and life may be injected. This is one significant aspect that separates mankind from the other creatures on Planet Earth.

At the moment no one seems to know why the bomb was planted and who planted it and while these questions are no doubt important, it should be so only to help in the investigation of the case for no reason can be justified enough for anyone to plant a bomb at a place teeming with hundreds, if not thousands, of the sick and ailing.

No one has the right to defile the sanctum-sanctorum of a place like a hospital, certainly not RIMS. This brings to mind the need to re-appraise the standard response of the people to cases of bombs exploding in public places or some unidentified gunmen eliminating a man or a woman.

Time to 'rejig' the accepted practise of the protesting people seeking the reason for a bomb explosion or for the murder of a man or a woman. The need to re-appraise the people's response has been necessitated in the face of the growing practise of the agitation being silenced for good once the reasons for killing someone is spelt out with dollops of justifications.

In other words, the demand for the explanation has come to mean giving room to the killers to justify their action. Nothing can be more self defeating than this trend.

It is tough to describe the elements responsible for planting bombs in places of healing like a hospital, for they escape the general understanding of mankind. At best they may be called sub-species of the lowliest species.

For too long the people of Manipur have had to live under the curse of these sub-species and it would do a whole lot of good for all to accept the ugly fact that these elements have been emboldened by the selective silence and selective protest by the people.

A bomb in a hospital is unacceptable and cannot be justified at any cost and this stand should be aired clearly without any riders. This is not the first time that RIMS has come under threats from some jokers, who think nothing wrong in playing God.

There have been bomb blasts inside the vicinity of this institution and there have been other equally disturbing cases. It is an uncomfortable thought, but it stands true that the bomb planted at RIMS reflects the ugly reality of what is happening here. Unidentified gunmen is perhaps one of the most recognisable 'faces' to the public of Manipur.

And it goes without saying that these unidentified gunmen have taken it upon themselves to don the role of the police, the judge and the executioner, all rolled into one, though there is nothing lofty or inspiring with their agenda, which is nothing but to make money.

It is a disturbing commentary on the nature of society here that a culture has been embedded in the value structure where public legitimacy can be obtained by planting a bomb or two and killing someone, all in the name of the land and the people.

There will be no surprise elements if someone with a lofty claim comes forward and bears responsibility for the RIMS bomb and it wouldn't be more surprising if the same man goes ahead and tries to justify his action by talking nonsense, laced with patriotic rhetorics.

This is an instance of bastardising patriotism as seen at the macro-form and impacting at the micro-level.

What happened at RIMS is a collective blow on the sensibilities of the people and if a clear cut message that such non-chalant act is not acceptable, then the future does not bode well for anyone, certainly not for society as a whole.

A bomb ripping through the OPD section of a hospital is not altogether an impossible event, if such practise is not flushed down the toilet.

Hospitality can never co-exist with hostility and those who come out with hostile agenda to transplant it at a place of hospitality should be consigned to the waste bin of the people's consciousness.