Reading everything along community divide : Looking at some issues
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 19 2016 -

The issues are many. And central to almost all the issues is the ties between the hill and valley people.

So from the demand to enforce an Act to regulate the entry of non-local people into the State to the demand that the Meiteis/Meeteis be included in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution of India to the stand off at Manipur University over the reservation for ST students in admission, all these have something to do with the relationship between the hill and valley people.

Tragic it is and it is more than obvious that everything that can go wrong in the ties between the people of the hills and the valley people have gone wrong thereby giving a big lie to some of the high sounding slogans that have been coined.

Time to move on from these slogans and see if and how things can be improved.

Painful to note that a demand to protect the indigenous people of the land by regulating the inflow of non-local people into the soil of Manipur has pitchforked the people against each other to such an extent that the bodies of the nine people killed at Churachandpur are still lying in state.

There is also no indication that the last rites of the dead persons will be performed any moment.

The deep wedge that has been driven by an issue, which should have ideally united the people cutting across community divides, is reflective of the deep sense of distrust between the hills and the valley and this is a fact which should be acknowledged by everyone.

Why is this so ? No answer answers here and this is where perhaps more people to people contact may be stressed.

The Manipur University imbroglio is again not seen by many as to whether the MU authority has adhered to the norms laid down by the UGC and other authority concerned but more of a stand off between the tribals and non-tribals of the land.

This is what is unfortunate. Debate the issue or address the many questions according to what the UGC has laid down and not on the dividing line between the people such as general category and Scheduled Tribe.

Granted it is the quota raj which is at the centre of the present imbroglio but then any difference over the seat allocation should be viewed through the prism of what has been laid down by the UGC and not through the prism of community divide.

There will be no magic wand to address all the issues confronting the State for the fact remains that more often than not, most of the people prefer to view all the issues through the eyes of community to which they belong.

Not exactly communalising issues but then when everything is viewed through the interest of one’s community the only loser will be the place.

It may be easier said than done, but honest introspection is the need of the hour and the most crucial question at this point is whether anyone is ready to be honest as honesty is universally understood.