Spare the rod, spoil the monster
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: April 30, 2024 -

YES, we have said it, and whether one likes it or not, we are saying it again - "more than the armed Kuki-Chin militants who fired the bullets to cut short the lives of two CRPF personnel and left two others grievously wounded, it is the government of India which should be regarded as the real culprit behind the deadly attack on the CRPF post".

Increasing aggression of Kuki-Chin militants in Manipur today is a classic example of the proverbial saying, "spare the rod, spoil the child".

Predictably, the same spoiled brat has today grown into a Frankenstein's monster, big and strong enough to take on its own creator.

So, when Kuldiep Singh, who is the security advisor to government of Manipur, issued a stern warning saying that whoever responsible for the attack on the CRPF camp will have to pay heavy price or for that matter when Inspector General of CRPF Akhilesh Prasad Singh assured that the assailants would be identified and punished for their actions soon, we cannot help but wonder over the ironic impact such warnings and assurances must have given to the hundreds of families who are still in bereavement over the loss of their loved ones and the thousands of displaced families living in the relief camps with no clear path to their future for nearly a year now after their houses were either burnt down or razed to the ground in the ethnic conflict that broke out between the Kuki-Chin and Meetei/Meitei communities since May 3 last year.

By saying this, we are in no way trying to belittle the supreme sacrifices made by the two CRPF personnel and the grievous injuries suffered by two others in the deadly attack carried out by armed Kuki-Chin militants on the CRPF post by taking advantage of absence of many of the CRPF personnel at the remotely located camp in Bishnupur district's Naransena as they had gone for election duty, as the Inspector General had pointed out.

In fact, more than the families in bereavement or the internally displaced people, the irony of the warning issued by security advisor Kuldiep Singh and the assurance given by CRPF IC Akhilesh Prasad Singh must have stung the hardest at the hearts of families of security personnel who have also either lost their lives or suffered injuries in the ongoing ethnic conflict.

It is with a good reason that many feel that the conflict has been allowed to go on for so long despite the deployment of so many companies of central security forces who are perceived to be mollycoddling the armed Kuki-Chin militant groups.

If the government of India, more specifically, its Home Ministry, under whose directive these central security forces operate, had been sincere enough to resolve the crisis in Manipur, deployment of a whopping 60,000 central security forces would have sufficed to control the crisis within days of its outbreak, provided they have been given the command to act against the aggression of Kuki-Chin militants rather than making them to remain as mere mute spectators to the humanitarian crisis unfolding before their eyes.

This was exactly what N Biren Singh, the chief minister of Manipur, had meant when he said, "You (central forces) have not been invited to observe what is going on...".

Despite his seemingly unwavering support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the chief minister must also be knowing deep down in his heart by now that the government of India is playing with the lives of not only the innocent citizens of the country in Manipur but also of the central security forces, he had requisitioned for deployment to help in containing the violence.

By sparing the rod that could have been used to control it, the government of India is allowing the monster it created in the form of Kuki-Chin militant groups to grow so strong that it has even started to bite the hand that feeds it.

This is a sad reality, indeed.