Scripting a farce of a story : Pressing false alarm !
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 27, 2024 -

It is scary. Is this the Government which the people should trust with their lives and properties ?

Forget about the Manipur from May 3, 2023 to September 26, 2024, but take a look at the place from September 17, 2024 to September 20, 2024 and from there to September 25, 2024 and things should be clear.

A little jog down the last 8 days is necessitated by the unfolding reality, a situation which is not just comical but also dangerous.

On September 17 an official communication from the Secretary of the Chief Minister to the Security Advisor and the DGP went viral on the social media with the message that intelligence inputs have been received of well trained and armed Kuki militants set to enter Manipur from across the border.

Back then many dismissed it as fake news, for no one was inclined to believe that a classified information such as an intimation from the Chief Minister’s Office to the Security Advisor and the DGP would come out in the public forum.

A few enterprising folks went to the extent to comparing the signature of the CM’s Secretary and the language used in the communication.

The matter was left as it was and The Sangai Express had expected a sort of a clarification from the CM’s office on the ‘fake’ circular doing the round on the social media.

No such clarification came and after three full days of the said official intimation doing the round on the social media, Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh convened a media conference on September 20 wherein he sort of dropped a bombshell in announcing that intelligence reports have been received of at least 900 well trained and armed Kuki militants having entered Manipur from Myanmar side.

The Security Advisor topped this off with the announcement that attacks on Meitei settlements could be expected around September 28.

Fast forward to the late evening of September 25 and another circular from the office of the Secretary of the Chief Minister did the round, which negated the report of 900 Kuki armed militants entering Manipur.

The quixotic development is what has taken Manipur by surprise and hours before the circular from the Secretary of the Chief Minister did the round, news channel News18 had come out with a report which stated, “The Central Government is upset with the State for issuing an intelligence alert on ‘900 Kuki militants’ without verifying and creating an atmosphere of panic.”

A case of the Government not able to tell what its left hand is doing from its right or a case of putting the cart before the horse ?

Either way this is hard to digest and to think that it is this Government on which the people have reposed their trust and faith to protect their lives and properties is simply astounding.

If the past is any indication, Imphal will not bat an eyelid much less hang its head in shame over this mother of a blunder, but it should acknowledge that it is this ham handed manner of tackling the issue at hand which can be said to be a major reason for the crisis to continue for over 16 months.

It is this approach which has ‘emboldened’ Delhi to remain indifferent to the crisis here.

One also wonders how the circular from the Secretary to the Security Advisor and the DGP on the intelligence report of Kuki militants having sneaked into Manipur went viral on the social media ?

A question which only those in the position of influence and power can answer, but the blunder that has followed has necessitated this poser.

And on what basis did Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh deem it fit to address the media that 900 Kuki militants have sneaked into Manipur ?

As the Good Governance Party asked in a social media post, to whom does the Intelligence Department report-the Chief Minister’s Office or the DGP ?

Again a question which only those in position of power and influence can answer, but this should more than say how the administrative apparatus of the State Government has been turned upside down.

Top to bottom governance with too many at the top that those coming down the pecking order do not know who to report to ?

A mechanism worked out deliberately by Delhi to keep the people confused ?

The way the 900 Kuki militants story has been reduced to a joke is not at all funny but has that ring of tragedy.