The Government of India shouts and draws the attention of the entire world making hue and cry for the three Indians that were kidnapped by Al-Qaeda Groups in Iraq, showing and demonstrating the entire world that the Government of India really cares for its citizens. When Dhananjay Chatterjee was finally sentenced to be hanged, the whole Indians objected and caught the limelight of Indian Media. POTA was termed the worse draconian act that was ever passed in the Indian Parliament and was removed.
Then, why is it that the government of India failed to care for its northeast citizens? Where have those benevolent Indians gone who have fought and stood until the last second seeking for Dhananjay's life? Have our courageous, brave, elite, and literate Indians who have steered the Indian society by removing POTA, suddenly grown old to remove AFSPA?
Is it because India wants to expose to the entire world that Manipur is very must a part of India, regardless of caring or not for its people? Is it because the Indian elite human rights groups think that the people of Manipur are not at par with Dhananjay and with other Indians? Or is it because our Indian leaders think that Manipuris need a greater degree draconian act like AFSPA to suppress us?
The fact is that India wanted to show to the world that India is the largest democratic country in world and takes extreme cares for its citizen. The truth that India really do cares for its citizens is now out rightly exposed here in Manipur by exploiting, suppressing, killing and raping its own citizens. The ground reality being the ongoing protest against AFSPA in Manipur.
The Indian elite human rights groups who have shown extreme care for human life in the case of Dhananjay Chatterjee was just a show and vanishes in the thin air along with Dhananjay. They have never given a thought of what is happening in Manipur, where there is extreme and rampart violation of human rights. They just shouted and cried for limelight and are not a true human rights activists. This is how the Indians treat us, a colonial treatment indeed.
The so call leaders and pioneers who have just a few days back steered the Indian Society by removing POTA has expressed their willingness to keep AFSPA in Manipur. What does it all shows? Will India ever treat Manipuris as one of them? Who are alienating whom?
The one-page legislation act with barely five sections, AFSPA is the worse ever known draconian act than the 64 sections POTA, which the government of India had just removed. With AFSPA the government of India is at its best to enforce its powers to control, dehumanize, degrade and insult the people in the lowest from ever imaginable to mankind. So that it can keep the Indian Map intact without caring for the welfare of its people. Isn't this a third rated citizen's treatment given to us? A colonial treatment indeed.
The AFSPA act simply empowers the Indian Armed personals to kill, torture, and to rape. Here we all should know that 'RAPE' is an assault on both the individual woman being and her family and the community as a whole. This act is generally done by the Armed Forces in the war zone only. When the Oinam incident of 1987, which expresses the brutality and the excesses of the Assam Rifles is still fresh and lingering in our mind yet another thoughtless act of 17th Assam Rifles with regard to Miss Thangjam Manorama Devi has rightly shown and proved that Manipur is a war zone. A colonial treatment indeed.
Let us all join hands and save our "Manipur - the little Polo Kingdom on Earth" from turning into a killing field.
Is this an act of a civilized society that also in this present IT age? It is nothing but an act which tantamount to the colonial rule of the British Empire. As India was to the British, so is Manipur to India. It was this very concept that Nehru gave away Kabaw Valley to Myanmar to appease the later. And it was this very concept that "CHUM NAMBA" was enforced in Manipur just after the merger of the then princely kingdom Manipur into the Indian Union. Under it the Indian Armed Forces counted the heads of every family, calculated the appropriate agricultural produce needed for that particular year and snatched away forcibly at gun point, all the surplus agricultural produce from every family's granary. All these facts are sufficient to prove that the Government of India is continuing the British Colonial Rule in Manipur.
These demands for the removal of AFSPA and drawing of attention of the Government of India for the welfare of the people of Manipur are genuine, constitutionally and universally legal and it should not be suppress. If the Delhi Raj instead of appeasing the sentiments of the Manipuris imposes President's Rule the Union Government for sure is inviting for a big confrontation with the general public of Manipur.
Its time that New Delhi realizes the fact that Manipur was forcibly merged to the Indian Union and the charges for its forceful occupation and suppression will not be far behind. The Indian Government should act quickly to defuse the mounting crisis in Manipur before the world community steps in and force to heed to the democratic aspirations of the Manipuri peoples.
* L. Punil Kanta Singh, based in Imphal, contributes regularly e-pao.net.
The writer can be contacted at [email protected]
This article was written on August 16, 2004.
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