Matthew 7:3
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 15 2013 -
"January 11, 2013 has been the happiest day of my life", Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh is reported to have told one of his closest aides after his 'confrontation' with Union Home Minister Sukhil Kumar Shinde and Centre's Interlocutor RS Pandey at New Delhi on January 11.
And why shouldn't he be? After all, he succeeded in making the stand of Manipur Government clear over any attempt to disturb the existing territorial integrity of Manipur in the process of trying to bring about a settlement to the over 15 years long peace talk between the Government of India and the Naga rebel group, NSCN (IM).
In the person of AICC President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in whose presence the confrontation had taken place, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh also found someone who was willing to listen and pay attention to the intricacies of the issue surrounding the 'sometime sweet but most of the time sour' peace negotiation process between the two parties.
During the confrontation, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh is said to have elaborated to the Central leaders on the composition of total population of Manipur, the number of ethnic communities living in the state and their exact population figures, the developmental works taken up by the State Government in the hill areas of the State, apart from showing a map of Manipur as well as a list of tribal IAS and MCS officers presently working in the Civil Secretariat of the State, whose number far exceeds that of the Meeteis (thanks to the reservation or quota system for tribals) to Sonia Gandhi, who was taken aback at the kind of information that have been feeding her ears by the Union Home Minister and the Centre's interlocutor for the peace talk with NSCN (IM) all these years.
Even though Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh may be jubilant over his success in convincing the Central leaders from taking a one-sided view at the time of arriving at 'an honourable and acceptable solution' to the Indo-NSCN (IM) peace talk, the task ahead is still uphill and it is no time for celebration or respite.
Because the spill-over effect of the peace talk between the Government of India and NSCN (IM) has done already more harm in the social fabric than anyone could have ever thought of and it would require extra effort to instill confidence in the hearts and minds of the people who have been bombarded with lies and more lies.
It's true that hill areas in Manipur have been lagging far behind in the race for development despite the fact that Centre has been allocating necessary funds for development on parity with the plain areas year after year.
And there is a separate Department/Directorste looking after the developmental activities in the hills which is always headed by elected representatives from the hill areas.
Utilisation of the funds allocated for development in hill areas is at the discretion of the said department and any attempt to divert the funds for any other purpose would be something of a sacrilege that would invite strong protest from the ever alert tribal organizations.
In such a situation, how some sections of the people in the hills have taken malicious pleasure in putting all the blames on the Meetei community for lack of development in the hill areas defies logic and rationale thinking.
Yes, Meeteis may be the majority community in the State, but still ours is a democratic State where people belonging to various ethnic groups elect the representatives and send them to the Assembly for running the affairs of the State.
But the so-called public leaders and organizations in the hills have been even gone to the extent of dubbing the elected Government which is in place as 'communal Meetei Government'.
This definitely shows the true character and askew mindset of the so-called leaders who deliberately ignore the beam in front of their own eyes and try to look at the speck in eyes of others.
Let sanity be prevailed.
Amen.
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