Underlining the need for a dialogue : It cannot go on like this
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 28 2023 -

Significant development in the last few days.

On December 24, just one day ahead of Christmas, Retd Lt General Konsam Himalay banked on a refreshingly new approach to the ongoing conflict-dialogue.

This is something far removed from what the war mongers on either side of the clash divide have had to say and which unsur-prisingly seem to be the toast of everyone at the moment.

Just two days after the retired Army official advocated dialogue in a meaningful take during an exlusive chat with The Sangai Express, Chief Minister N Biren called for dialogue as the only feasible way forward.

This is what the retired Army officer has been advocating from the evening of May 3 and go back to June 8, 2023 and it would do good for the people and the place to have another look at his thought provoking piece, ‘An eye for an eye makes everybody blind, Way ahead towards conflict resolution’.

The Sangai Express would like to believe that the call for dialogue is an extension of what was said as early as June 8, and one hope things are taken up from here and taken to the next plane, especially with the Chief Minister himself openly advocating a dialogue.

This is where New Delhi should step in and broker a dialogue and this is precisely the reason why the continued silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been noted with anguish, not once but many times in this column.

One word from the man in New Delhi will certainly go a long way in softening the hawkish stands adopted by either side.

Nearly 200 people have been killed, many others are missing, numerous houses have been razed to the ground and thousands are braving the current winter chill in the different shelter homes.

The Peace Committee which was set up in the earlier days of the ongoing clash has been a still born child, but this should not mean why efforts cannot be taken up afresh to give a fresh shot of life to the proposed committee.

New Delhi may take the lead in giving the needed shot and push to the still born committee, for the truth is, dialogue is the only way forward and such a move can only be to the benefit of everyone.

Solution first, peace later, was the slogan coined by the Committee on Tribal Unity but now is the time for everyone concerned to take a fresh look at the slogan and see how it can be reviewed.

The spadework to take things to the negotiating table should start now and while the Government is expected to take the lead, the people too should acknowledge the responsibility that lies before them.

Initiatives may come from the Government but it is the people who should carry it forward.

The understanding of a dialogue is naturally followed by the first steps that have to be taken to put Manipur on the path of normalcy.

Everybody would want this and as Lt General K Himalay advocated, the guns should be silenced to take the first step towards normalcy.

This may be easier said than done, but it should not be forgotten that ‘defenders of the people and land’ emerged due to the vacuum created in the earlier days of the ongoing clash.

The sense of deep distrust between the public and some security forces of the Union Government should also be studied with the merit it deserves for the cases of looting arms from the police armouries cannot and should not be seen in isolation of the vacuum that was created, either by will or by default.

As noted, this will be a tough call, but the Government cannot and should not just sleep over this all important point.

The guns used in the valley districts have been accounted for, but the question that has been consistently raised by the people, is how about the guns that are being used in firing at the villages at the foothills.

From where have these guns come from is the question that is doing the round.

The need to address this need not be overstressed and it should be clear to the Government and everybody concerned.

It is Chief Minister N Biren and Lt General K Himalay and it would make so much sense for the civil society organisations on either side of the clash divide to start talking about the inevitability of sorting out differences via a dialogue.

And for reasons that should be obvious to all, the right environment, the sense of security need to be cultivated for the CSOs to come out in the open to talk about the need for a dialogue.