Cutting off the nose to spite the face : Of false heroes and heroines
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 12, 2025 -

240 hours general strike cut short to 48 hours, but curfew continues.

So too is the suspension of internet service and one is left wondering whether the imposition of curfew and the net suspension had anything to do with the bandh that was announced, before it was rolled back after two days.

Else how does one explain the rationale of putting cops to work to remind everyone to rush back home or close shop as curfew hour sets in.

Or the continuation of the internet suspension, with no word from the Government even 24 hours after Imphal has limped back to a sort of normalcy.

This is what is happening right now at Imphal and the other valley districts and even as the curfew and internet suspension continue, this perhaps is the right time for everyone to take a look back at the madness that was staged on the roads of Imphal during the 48 hours general strike.

The thumb rule of a bandh or a general strike is to make a stand, a stand that says that the move of the Government is opposed and the merit of keeping the bandh hours under a certain limit, say a period of 18 hours or 24 hours, should be understood and appreciated.

Any point that is sought to be made can be made by the very act of calling the general strike and not in inconveniencing the public.

And a bandh that runs into more than 24 hours is definitely going to affect the people and not the powers that be.

Imphal is right now experiencing the fruits of the earth piled up in the middle of many roads to dissuade people from moving around during the bandh hours.

Huge volume of dust kicked up everytime a vehicle passes through and one wonders how asthmatic folks and those with breathing problems must be coping with the situation.

It is dust at the moment and a slight shower anytime would mean the roads turning into a road of mud and slush.

Or the bonfires lit up in the middle of the roads.

In no time potholes will appear and it is again the common people, the very set of people on whose behalf the bandh was ostensibly called, who will suffer and not those who move around in their fancy SUVs and MPVs.

Pulling out the railings erected in the middle of the road to put up road blockades will hurt no one but the common people and this is where one is left wondering why such basic facts blow over the head of those who come out to enforce the bandh or general strike.

Destruction and protest against any move of the Government cannot and should not go together.

A stand against the Government can be made and it should be made, but this should not get reduced to an exercise of going on a destruction spree but this is what Manipur has been experiencing ever since the place went up in flames in the evening of May 3, 2023.

All indications that in the course of agitation it is the ruffians, the hooligans who come forward and hijack the real cause for which the bandh or general strike was called.

It is for this very reason why the Arambai Tenggol had to cut short its proposed 240 hours general strike to 48 hours.

Another extremely disturbing trend is to see so many coming out in the public spewing venom and instigating the people to pick a target and go on the rampage, not against others, but against one's own people.

This is the dangerous trend that one sees today and it is no wonder why many concerned parents advise their children not to come back home for the Summer Holiday, if their children happen to be studying outside Manipur.

This is the reality and one of the root causes for this could be the penchant of the people to worship bogus heroes and heroines and in the process allow themselves to be played around to suit the agenda of the string puller/s.

Something has to give for Manipur cannot afford to continue living in a make believe world, where things are said to earn some brownie points but which in the process can have a debilitating effect on society and how the world perceives the place and the people.