Reflecting the deep divide : Directive of NSF
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 23 2016 -

Reflecting the deep divide.

If the threat of the Naga Students’ Federation is carried out then it means that movement of all vehicles belonging to Manipur or to be more specific to Meiteis will be banned from February 24 in the Naga inhabited areas.

A pressure tactics it may be to bring the State Government to its knee and take up action against the police commandos responsible for assaulting some members of the Naga Students’ Federation at Mantripukhri area on February 14.

Something unacceptable, for no one has the license to assault anyone, but as things have turned out, the senseless act of the goons who come under the garb of policemen is today threatening to take on a bigger dimension.

So from an incident involving a student body today it is threatening to take on a communal tinge, if what the NSF has had to say is any indication.

Why should an incident involving the police and members of a student organisation now come under the tinge of communal division ?

Moreover does it make any sense to identify the State police with a particular community ?

The cops who assaulted the student leaders on February 14 may have been Meiteis, but does it make any sense to identify the whole force with one community ?

Likewise it may also be asked whether the cops would have assaulted the NSF team if they had belonged to some other community.

It is the silence of the Government that is stupefying. Why not crack the whip and demonstrate that the guilty would not be spared ?

Or is it a case of the Government being too pre-occupied with what TR Zeliang had to say at Ukhrul during the Lui-Ngai-Ni festival ?

Either way it sucks and is totally unacceptable. This is not the time to pussy foot the issue.

Take up action against the guilty police personnel and demonstrate that no one can be above the law.

Moreover let sense also prevail among the leaders of the NSF and come to the realisation that coming with such a directive as no vehicles of any particularly community should be allowed to move around in Naga inhabited areas has the potential to make things more ugly.

Makes absolutely no sense to read everything along communal lines.

As student leaders, the NSF members too have a duty towards society and such a directive can go a long way in deepening the already deep divide between different communities in the State.

This is not what is called for at this juncture. The stand of The Sangai Express is clear.

Pull up all those guilty of assaulting the student leaders on February 14 yet at the same time no attempts should be made to read the particular incident along communal lines.