Vandalizing of fruit seller is about protecting the identity of Imphal
- Imphal Times Editorial :: May 04 2018 -

Fruit shops attached to the walls of Bhairodan School vandalised :: Pix - IT News

It is not about being communal but rather a protest against the disparities by government agency towards its citizens by dividing on communal lines.

Preserving one’s culture and traditions is what every community felt as their bounden duty to protect their identity. When felt insecure, the community in danger has every right to protest.

Much has been debated on the issue for demand for a permit system to the entry of non local in the state.

The ongoing agitation demanding ILPS is about protecting and preserving the traditions, culture and identity of the people of the state.

It is a legitimate right of the people to put up the demand as the Indian constitution too says that every citizen has the right to protect and preserve their own culture and tradition.

After all the system is in force at some neighbouring states of Manipur.

Yesterday incident or say a democratic protest which was compelled to turn violent after authority fails to listen the plea of the JCILPS has been misinterpreted to monger communal hatred among Meitei people and the Mayang people.

We already had experience about such technique being used in the past by government authority.

But a closure look into what prompted the JCILPS volunteers taking the extreme form of agitation will make every right thinking people that the movement was not against any specific communities.

Some few days back after the issue for demand of ILPS remain quiet with the coming of a new government which had assured to introduce a legislation of ILPS type in the state, the JCILPS finally re-organised a protest by submitting memorandum to the government for speedy introduction of a legislation. The Women wing when inspected the condition of the Khwairamband Keithel Ima Market – the only women run market in the country, many male were found mixing the women vendors at some area.

This is a direct threat to the traditions and identity of Khwairamband Keithel Ima Market.

The JCILPS did not care about which communities that male vendor occupying seat in Ima Market belongs to but the Women Wing threaten serious agitation if they have not been driven out. What is coincidental is that almost all the male occupying women seat turned out to be non-indigenous people.

It’s natural that the Students’ Wing of the JCILPS would definitely stand against attaching of market shed in front of their school and that too by attaching to the wall.

Students, staffs and teachers of Bhairodan Maxwell Hindi Primary and High School, have been submitting memorandums time and again to shift the fruit vendors from the area as it disturbs the school environment.

Media too witness series of protest by the school students and teachers.

The fruit vendors claimed to have license but the truth is that the license they procured is illegal as there is a Supreme Court order which said that no license for selling goods can be provided on the foot path.

The 25 fruit vendors are being provided license for making stall on the footpath as well as on the drain.

The waste produced from them had failed the school drainage and every rainy season students and teachers have suffered extreme hardship due to artificial flood.

The protest witness yesterday has a tendency to spark another mass protest, but could have been prevented if the law enforcers were ordered to deliver their services without disparities.

When the government seemed to be serious about encroachers government land why they still keep continuing protection to the illegal fruit vendors.

Is it because these fruit sellers are Mayang from Mainland who is being protected by the fascist Hindutva regime or Is it a mere negligence on the part of the administrators.

Human history has not been an amiable narrative of peaceful co-existence and development.

Throughout the various epochs, many politico – cultural trends have emerged and disappeared with particular time periods, only to reappear again in a more subtle form and then proceed toward another transformation.

A peculiar feature evident throughout has been the stark feature of dissent a resultant of various opposing, contesting (and unequal), asymmetrical forces, which in turn get expressed through various means - violent or otherwise.

What is conspicuous is the culture in which dissent is suppressed, repressed subversion contained and opposition strategically anticipated, controlled and diffused by the dominant force working exclusively in the interest of the prevailing power structure.