June 18 and call for peace & unity - But unity and peace among whom?
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 19 2012 -
People offering floral tributes to martyrs of June 18 at Kekrupat Memorial Complex :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao
Even after more than a decade, the air surrounding the commemorative events of June 18 incident of 2001 remains thick with calls for peace and unity and it was no different this time as people from different walks of life paid rich tributes to the 18 'martyrs' who laid down their lives in the agitation for protection of territorial integrity of Manipur.
Subsequent to announcement of the ceasefire agreement 'without territorial limit' signed between the Government of India and the Naga rebel group, NSCN (IM) at Bangkok on June 14, 2001, Imphal literally went up in flames with angry protestors setting on fire the buildings of Assembly Secretariat, Chief Minister's Secretariat, bungalow of the Speaker, MLA's quarters and offices of various political parties, contending that there was no need for these institutions as they could not protect the territorial integrity of Manipur.
The protestors were so enraged that they even manhandled and dragged out the then speaker Sapam Dhananjoy from his office and pushed him to the Raj Bhavan so that he could resign.
Some unsuspecting MLAs who were whiling away their time in the lounge of the Assembly complex were also nearly roasted alive in the raging inferno.
In an effort to control the mob fury, police and security personnel opened indiscriminate firing killing 13 protestors on the spot while injuring several others. Eventually, the number of death toll rose to 18 and some of the injured maimed for life.
The sheer magnitude of the unprecedented uprising did compel the Government of India to withdraw the controversial phrase, 'without territorial limit' from its peace pact with NSCN (IM), but the damage had already been done on the social fabric of Manipur.
After the June 18 incident, it has become an onerous responsibility, more specifically, for the proponents of territorial integrity, to restore the strain relationship. So, it is not surprising to keep hearing the calls for peace and unity among the people on the commemoration of June 18 incident.
But, how such calls for peace and unity would go down with the people when different organizations purportedly standing for the territorial integrity of Manipur could not stand each other and organise the commemorative events separately?
Time and again, the surviving family members of the 'martyrs' have also expressed unhappiness over organizing the commemorative event at different places and appealed for observing the event at one place together, but to no avail.
In such a situation, when someone says something like, "The question of territorial integrity of Manipur would have never risen if there is peace and unity among the people" in one of the 'separate' commemorative events, we just like to question the speaker whether he has found peace for himself within so as to talk about peace with others.
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