The Great June 18 and the Great 18 Souls

Samarjit Kambam *

The Great June Uprising Observation at Kekrupat on June 18 2013 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Law enforcers or concerned authorities cannot book anyone as an accused for any kind of unlawful act, most particularly, a criminal one until an FIR (First Investigation Report) is lodged by the police or law enforcing agency. The June 18 incident of 2001 involved acts by the common people of the state amounting to loss of public property and government assets but nobody was booked because there was no criminal conspiracy involved.

For that particular fateful day there was no mastermind involved nor the incidents that occurred were the brainchild of a handful of persons of vested interest. The event was a result barring any pre-planned or sinister scheme. The main reason behind the Great June Uprising was the 'collective consciousness' of the people, people with patriotic fervor, whose hearts were filled with love for their motherland, people who would never compromise with the territorial integrity of Manipur no matter what.

Whatever incidents that occurred can be termed as 'on the spot' incident. Nobody led anybody to burn down the Assembly building, the rampage on officer's quarters near Chief Minister's enclave was carried out all of a sudden without the command or order of anybody.

In a democratic state or nation, the people are the strongest force. It is the people that form the government of a state or nation through universal adult franchise or public votes. There is a proverbial saying, "The maker is the rightful destroyer". In fact it is the people that make a government, so the same people who had made the government of the state or nation have the right to unmake or bring down the government.

The only mistake is that people bring out the wrong leaders from amongst themselves leaving the State in a sorry and pitiable condition. Long before the June 18, 2001 incident the people were already fed up, pissed off and outraged at the almost dead system of the then prevailing governance of the state. The angst and fury of the people were unleashed on that day as the common people's emotion could not be contained any longer. The people couldn't bear the pain, anguish and dissatisfaction against the leaders of the state any more. I hope it was a great lesson well conceived by the big shots running the state of Manipur.

I am writing this piece not by guessing blindly nor through listening to any tell-tales, reports or narrations from anybody. I, as a citizen of the state am also a part and parcel of democracy and honestly speaking, I am also one of the umpteen numbers of people on that very day who came out on the streets.

Firstly, the protesting people who came out from every direction shouted slogans, carried banners and effigies of leaders and merged together in front of Governor Bhavan, near Chief Minister's bungalow and nearby areas. Shouting slogans and burning of effigies of leading politicians of the state were the first stage of that day's recipe of unflavoured incidents followed by the main course containing mixture of huge amount of tear gas and rubber bullets served by security forces.

Instead of moving backwards, more and more people gathered and the crowd only got bigger and further rushed towards the main site with the crowd's fury rising with each tick of the clock. Then all of a sudden without any order or direction from anybody, the irate mob turned their shouting with angst into action of revolt. That's when the govt buildings and other assets were rampaged, burnt, damaged, broken and destroyed at many sites simultaneously. The police personnel guarding the Assembly building had no other option than to surrender to the crowd, luckily they were spared.

Anger is a negative emotion, a mental darkness, an unwanted quality gifted to every human. It is natural for us human beings to get angry, the main solution is controlling and managing it. But everything has a limit. The pent-up anger could not be contained any longer among the people anymore on that fateful day. So, from a technical point of view, the people were innocent.

It was the system, the issue and the state of affairs of governance by the leaders running the state of Manipur that are to be blamed. No doubt, lots of public properties were damaged but none of the leaders, bureaucrats and their kins were intentionally harmed or injured even though some of their residences were damaged, burnt down and destroyed which is a crystal clear example of depicting the kind-heartedness and compassion possessed by the majority community i.e. the Meeteis. If the irate mob were of some other communities, they would not have been spared at all.

As the authorities running the state had turned a blind eye an deaf ear to the sensitive and sentimental public issue against "Extension of Ceasefire Without Territorial Limits" (a simple sounding but deceptive clause) which was carried out between NSCN(IM) and Govt of India, it is only natural that the public has to do the 'Job' which can be considered as deemed fit as the political leaders, higher dignitaries, big shots, bureaucrats were in a state of 'coma' during that critical timing where they should act or react to win the faith of the public.

It is to be kept in mind that civil wars erupt when the rulers of the state or nation turn a blind eye to the welfare of the nation and when the people consider the leaders or authorities as good as dead. Nevertheless it was a great uprising and it was lucky on the part of the state government that that uprising didn't erupt into a civil war.

Unfortunately, under the command of some high ranking police officials with contorted mindsets or simply speaking officials whose brains were situated in their boots not in their heads, the CRPF personnel posted as sentries in the nearby vicinity started firing live rounds from their SLRs indiscriminately and randomly towards the crowd at Sanjenthong and Imphal Head Post Office areas, near Chief Minister's Bungalow and front of Governor's Bhavan. I have witnessed many people who were shot and splattered with blood.

And the moment I will never forget in my life was a patriotic soul running just besides me who was shot and hit in the chest which I later realised that he succumbed to his injuries and died on the way to the nearest hospital i.e. JN Hospital, Porompat. I witnessed many others who were running for dear life but were hit by bullets.

Thanks to the IRB personnel posted there for their rapid action of helping the wounded ones by taking them to JN Hospital. Most of them could not make it, some of them died instantly on the spot, some after reaching the hospital. When I reached JN Hospital, I saw body bags of the great souls brought outside one by one. It was the most shocking and heart-rending moment of my life.

If those great souls stayed comfortably at their cosy homes, they would not be dead but those souls with great patriotic fervor never compromised on the territorial integrity of our state of Manipur and sacrificed their lives for our motherland and for our better tomorrow. I pay my humble tribute to the 18 GREAT SOULS of June 18 which has been declared by the UCM as "The Great June Uprising Day".