Taking the high moral stand : Begone moral cops!
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 08 2019 -

Taking the high moral stand. Moral policemen.

Police, judge and executioner as well.

And all this they do in the name of upholding the values of society.

Credit to the State Government for acting swiftly and rounding up at least 11 of these moral cops.

Not all may have an idea on the topic that is central to this observation.

One here is referring to the manner in which one woman and one man were rounded up, roughed up and ‘penalised’ for whatever they did, all by a crowd of supposed to be self righteous womenfolk, with the men watching the whole drama unfold and passing highly moralistic comments from behind.

Yes the same video shot that went viral on the social media particularly on Facebook quickly followed on Whatsapp.

It was a pain to see a young girl child, presumably the daughter of the woman, desperately trying to cover up her mother, trying to put some sort of a protective ring around her, covering her head with a cloth and even shielding her face and head, but to be roughly pulled apart from her mother by the self righteous elements who come in different shapes and sizes.

Opening the Facebook account on October 7 was a rude shock, as the particular video clip went viral with many more sharing the same footage.

What however was heartening to see was the disdain and the contempt in which the moral policing was held by all Facebook users, with many more coming out heavily against such barbaric behaviour.

What was the fault of the child to be so cruelly exposed to the manner in which her mother or the woman was put to public shame ?

What was her fault that she was treated so inhumanly, by all those who supposedly played policemen in the name of doing something good for society ?

Moral policing.

Noting moral in pulling up an individual and subjecting her to public humiliation and in the process do irreparable harm to a young child, who may happen to be the child of the woman who is being put on trial in some kangaroo court.

It is this which society as a whole need to sit down and think over seriously.

Such an act betrays a mindset that refuses to believe that there is something called justice.

It also a stark revelation of the high moral ground that some folks are keen to take and pass on their misguided sense of justice.

This has to stop. And to think that Manipur is a place where people take great pride in the rich heritage left by the forefathers.

Now that 11 have been pulled up, let the law take its own course.

Pull up the others too, particularly the one who shot the video footage and uploaded the same on the social media, with the objective of further shaming the lady in question.

This is not the hallmark of a progressive society but a reflection of a society where the self appointed moral guardians of society sit high and mighty.

Rare it is but it is good to see the Government respond promptly to the unfolding event and managing to round up 11 of the moral guardians.

Manipur can certainly do without these moral policemen and the first step would be to hand them some tough penalties and ring out the message that no one has the right to judge anyone from a high moral ground.

Compensate the little unfortunate child suitably too though all know that this will not heal the mental trauma she had to undergo.