Is Manipur a part of India or not I doubt!
- Letter to the President of India -
05 Jun 2010
I want to be an Indian with dignity. I am hereby expressing my personal feeling on the current impasse in Manipur. No doubt I am an Indian from the north-east. Folk stories so told by my grandparents remind of a time that all communities in Manipur live together. I wish that i can continue telling the same story to my grandsons. But the current impasse in Manipur will never allow me to do so. Madam, I wonder if your office and the government take the issue in Manipur seriously I am not offending the acts of the government but; we are actually tired of the situation today.
My mom has been buying cooking gas for Rs 1000 a cylinder and sometimes she cooks with charcoal due to present situation. When I ask more she never tells me exactly what is going on. And I assume she does not want to trouble me with the news of non availability of foods stuffs etc. My little sister is not attending school due to strike of transporters for not getting petrol. I sometimes call my friends in Manipur and talk to them in which we share troubled feelings of our state informing that diesel even is costing Rs 150/litre. Ploughing the field for food grain production is costing Rs 900 in place of Rs 400.
Madam, my family and friends in Manipur do not enjoy any more fundamental rights. Communalism is spreading like wild fire in my state with Naga organisations trying to divide all possible ways to provoke communities. Trucks bound for my state are burned. Food stuffs are being hijacked, bridges are being attempted to blow off, and highways are being blocked. Madam, I even wonder that your government has any interest in Manipur affairs. I wonder how proud I am, being an Indian when my home is burning, my family is starving and my sister is deprived of education as well as my community is deprived of life saving drugs.
Madam, I want to be an Indian with dignity and I believe your aim is to develop together irrespective of any division any community. I believe that your aim is peace not at the cost of conflict in any region. As a citizen of the country I want to bring to your notice that there is immediate requirement of interference in my home state by yourself. Your observation or close monitoring is costing unimaginable funds from the pocket of the common people. My brothers and sisters are doing everything using every resource to survive in such environment. But I wonder how long we will sustain to be proud Indians and how long will our resources last.
In such a scenario I would like to ask yourself that; is Manipur a part of India or not?
Please prove that it is part of India, please show that GOI care for us, please clear the confusion that you are separating us?
Shanta Singh Nahakpam
Melbourne Australia
Registration Number : PRSEC/E/2010/09088
Name : Shri Nahakpam Shanta
Date of Receipt : 05 Jun 2010
Current Status : President's Secretariat has received the request/grievance and is under examination
*** This is a letter written to the President of India . I hope to share this letter to the people of Manipur through yourself.
* Shanta Nahakpam is a regular contributor to e-pao.net . The sender can be contacted at shantaanta12(at)gmail(dot)com
This was webcasted on June 07 2010.
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