Completely losing the plot : Dangerous cocktail
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 13, 2024 -

Much more than apparent that the BJP led Government at Imphal has totally lost the plot.

An indifferent Delhi, an indifferent Union Home Ministry and a totally lost and helpless State Government, all combined have come together to script the tragedy that is Manipur today and making things worse is the reluctance of Imphal to own moral responsibility.

Far from making its stand clear before the world and the people, what Imphal has repeatedly done so far is pay obeisance to Delhi but this has not at all had the desired effect.

Far from it, this has only gone to add more muscle and venom to the Kuki armed groups which have not hesitated at all in training their guns on who they want.

From burning and ransacking houses at Jiribam, burning to cinders the victims who fell into their hands, the armed Kuki goons have scripted their reign of terror to a state of perfection, having abducted three women and three children.

No one knows what has become of the six persons in the custody of the armed Kuki men/women, but a picture of the six persons, which has gone viral on the social media with the children innocently looking up into the camera tears the heart and herein lies a tale of the Government having totally failed in discharging its duties.

Definitely not a case of Imphal being caught on the wrong foot for things were clear from the moment a fresh offensive was launched late in the evening of November 7 at Mongbung village in Jiribam.

The precursor of things to come should have been noted by just taking one hard, serious look at the manner in which the theatre of conflict leapfrogged from Jiribam to Bishnupur and then to Imphal East and back again to Jiribam.

News of at least ten Meitei folks missing after the high profile encounter between the CRPF and the Kuki armed persons started doing the round and it was only in the morning of November 12 that Imphal woke up to the news of two men found charred to death with yet another two bodies recovered from the fields.

This was rounded up with the information that six persons, including three women and three children are being held captive by the armed Kuki men.

The State Government is yet to respond to the unfolding situation, but it should be clear that solution or settling the issue peacefully across the table is farthest from the minds of the Kuki armed outfits and this is something which was clearly spelt out by the ten Kuki-Zo MLAs that a talk is not possible right now without the demand for a Separate Administration on the agenda.

A point made clear after the much tom-tommed round of talk was held at Delhi on October 15 involving Meitei, Kuki and Naga MLAs.

A total breakdown of the law and order situation.

Nothing to show that there is a Government in place and the greater tragedy is Imphal has not demonstrated one wee bit that it has taken cognizance of the reality.

No one seems to know who is calling the shot in Manipur and if at all a confusion has been created in the pecking order of the Government isn’t it right for Imphal to bring this up before Delhi and make its stand clear ?

Or is Imphal satisfied with adopting a servile posture before Delhi and in the process let the people suffer under the illusion that there is a popularly elected Government ?

No straight answer is expected to come from the people who matter in Imphal or Delhi, but Manipur has been on the boil for over 18 months now.

This in effect means that the people of Manipur have been taken as some sort of a toy by Delhi and what is more unacceptable is the point that such an arrangement seems to have been happily lapped up by the State Government.

Something has to give and even as this commentary is being penned down, no one knows what steps the State Government has taken up to trace and rescue the six persons who are currently held by the armed Kuki militants.

The belligerence and radical steps taken by the Kuki militants, an ineffective State Government and an indifferent Delhi have all come together to script the tragedy that is Manipur today.