Mismatch in CM's words and actions
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: August 03, 2024 -

The manner in which Manipur police personnel acted on Friday to stop a group of internally displaced persons (IDP) from taking out a rally, who were only demanding rehabilitation and resettlement at their original places, has been rightly condemned by many organisations and individuals.

The fact remains that excessive force had been used on these people who have now become homeless after security forces hurriedly evacuated them from Moreh but left their houses and other properties unprotected either to be ransacked or burnt down to ashes by armed Kuki militants and yet the chief minister had the gall to justify the police crackdown by way of claiming in the Manipur Legislative Assembly that the displaced and homeless people were demanding to stay at the houses of ministers and MLAs has made this incident even more contemptuous.

One should understand the anxiety and trauma of the thousands of displaced people, who have been seeking shelter and languishing in the relief camps since the violent conflict between the Meetei/Meitei and Kuki-Chin communities broke out on May 3 last year.

With the violent conflict completing 15 months exactly, it is sadder to say that so far there have been no sign of any concrete measures taken up by the governments both in the state and at the centre for resolving the crisis, other than giving endless assurances of every possible effort being made to bring a solution and restore normalcy in the strife-torn state.

It was against this backdrop that a committee formed for the protection of Meetei/Meitei people who got displaced from the border town had announced to take out the rally to raise various demands including rehabilitation and resettlement of their internally displaced people at their original places, removal of Assam Rifles, implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC), etc.

While it was distressing to see police firing tear gas canisters indiscriminately inside the campus of Ideal Girls' College at Akampat, where a relief camp for accommodating displaced people from Moreh has been in operation, viral videos of frightened young children studying in schools located in the vicinity fighting suffocation from the toxic fumes released were enough to melt the heart of anyone.

So, who gave the permission to launch the crackdown on displaced people who were only trying to take out a rally to air their grievances?

How much law-and-order problem would have it caused in the already crisis-torn state if the aggrieved but unarmed displaced men and women had been allowed to take out their rally?

Do the police have the right to manhandle any of the journalists who were performing their duty of covering such events for dissemination of information to the public?

Why can't the state police personnel demonstrate the same machismo and bravado in dealing with people who are brazenly talking about dismembering the territorial integrity of Manipur and working openly to achieve this divisive agenda?

As the big man in charge of the home department, the chief minister needs to give answers to these questions.

We are asking these questions, especially as the state police had launched the crackdown with least regard of the schools for young children functioning in the vicinity, and the chief minister himself had stated in the ongoing budget session of the Manipur Legislative Assembly a day earlier that "It was in upholding democratic rights of the people that there was no crackdown against rallies taken out in pursuance of Union Territory demand in some districts on June 24 even though the government did not approve the same".

Even if the chief minister could not give satisfactory answers to these questions, he definitely needs to do a deep soul searching now as a public leader to avoid mismatch in his words and actions.