Rise of the pretenders : Distorting peace
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 01 2011 -

Of what purpose is peace when it means merely the cessation of confrontation or gun duel between two feuding parties while the others, who are not a party to the feud, can be pushed around on some patriotic nonsense.

This is not only manipulating something as pristine as peace but is also a deceptive plot scripted and directed by the feuding parties to fool the public and such a state has come to be the defining characteristics of Manipur today.

There is no point in beating around the bush and two recent examples should suffice to explain why Manipur fits the bill of a place where the understanding of peace has been manipulated and distorted beyond its universal understanding.

The assassination of a young couple at Lungphu village in Ukhrul district some days back was not only a double tragedy in the sense that a father and a mother were cut down by a hail of bullets, leaving the children parentless, but it also says something very significant about the peace that has been shouted and hollered from every conceivable platform by those deemed important enough to speak out on behalf of a society or a community.

It is not the case of this newspaper to say whether the IM men had justified reasons to open fire at their target, the husband in this case, or not, but it is about how peace needs to be understood in its universal context.

Ever since the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India signed the cease fire pact on August 1, 1997, peace has been defined, redefined, used and abused by people with different interests to serve their political ambition and immediate personal needs.

And nowhere is this more visible than the sudden emergence of several “Naga champions” on every discernible platform and correspondingly in the increased number of mansions which will definitely put Kings and Princesses to shame.

The contrast is tragic, but at the same time it serves as something of an eye opener to see the latest models from the stable of Mahindra cruising past the dirt track besides which are the thatched huts and malnourished children rushing out to catch a glimpse of the luxury four wheelers.

This understanding of peace is also seen in the ornaments that adorn the people deemed close to these power brokers.

On the other hand, this peace has come to mean nothing much more than the unofficially issued permits or licenses to move around with arms and the defacto authority that one can enjoy with a gun in tow and this needs no elaboration.

What happened at Lungphu village is also a manifestation of the unofficial permits issued to carry guns and firearms. The question therefore arises over the efficacy of the ceasefire ground rules and since it has been a case of more violation rather than conforming with the ground rules, it will not be wrong to draw the conclusion that the peace as is defined and understood here has meant only the cessation of confrontation between the security forces and the armed cadres.

The guns are not trained on each other but this does not mean that it will not be trained on others who is thought to be standing in their way. The contradiction is palpable.

Another recent example pertains to the strongly worded statement issued by the KRA against the Chairman of the Sadar Hills Autonomous District Council, following the expose' run by this paper on the whereabouts of Rs 30 lakhs meant for MGNREGS.

That the funds meant for the development of the District Council had been surreptitiously withdrawn is a report that we stand by, despite the clarification and the subsequent damage control exercise, but the uncomfortable question that cannot be brushed aside that easily is on the basis of what strength did the KRA issue such a strong worded ultimatum ?

On record, the outfit is a signatory of the Suspension of Operation agreement and by this it is understood that they have to abide by certain rules and regulations such as depositing their arms at a safe place and not to move around civilian population.

The very fact that such a statement was issued in the first place says something very significant about how the whole exercise of enforcing SoO has been reduced to a mechanism for some of these groups to move around more freely.

This is a joke, a pathetic joke. This is not the first such case and there have been other incidents in the past when signatories of SoO had violated the ground rules and thrown their weight around.

In all these instances, one thing stands out prominently and that is the Government and the security forces appear more than willing to turn a blind eye as long as their men or their interests are not hurt. Damn the common people to their own fate, is the catchline.

The reality can be brushed aside only to the loss of the public, the average man on the street. Peace or war, the situation has not changed that much at the ground level and why this is so, should be obvious to all.

The bottomline is, as long as the interests of the two primary players are not threatened then the understanding and spirit of peace may be defiled, misinterpreted, distorted and defined according to the need of their situation.

It is time to call the bluff of living under an illusionary spell of peace for it has never ever benefited the public, but only the peace mongers who have an obvious interest in distorting its meaning to suit their personal agenda.

Look at the latest model from Honda and the truth will dawn.