We Are Not All Fools
- Pains on the death of a pregnant mother -

Amar Yumnam *

George Barnard Shaw said thus: "A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education." Our society is already on the Shawian path of evolution. There are many in this land of ours who have received university education, and now we have a full-fledged university as well.

The next war of the administration would be with the increasing volatility of this group which refuses to take the explanations of the government of the happenings in the land on face value. The wits of this group have been tested beyond limits.

9mm Phenomenon:

We know that there are many more weapons other than the 9 mm guns. The pattern in which the events are getting unfolded in this part of the globalised world leave much out of tune with the technological advancement and the knowledge content of the general populace at this historical juncture.

Events are getting very frequent where only 9mms are the accomplices. Pity the 9mm that every time its name crops up, and every crime is its product!! Something definitely needs to be done about the 9 mms.

My Concerns:

My concerns with the 9 mm phenomenon are two-fold. The play is being played far too often to be appealing and attractive. The frequency is even eroding the possible credibility of the genuineness of the events. We should remember that variety is the spice of life.

Unless the drama attains the classic quality of Shakespearian dimensions, it is plain boring to watch the same play repeatedly. The social situation is also such that we cannot imagine to ourselves sitting beside a charming beauty during the play and just ignore the drama. The drama itself, despite its absolute lack of quality, reflects, reacts and impacts upon the real life terribly deeply.

We understand that we have been dealing with the insurgency for at least three decades continuously. This implies that by this time the state machinery should have been fairly proficient enough in handling any crisis or potential ones emanating from the insurgents.

Whatever the case, a single 9mm should not be allowed to acquire the proportions of the old Dragon. We all know that 9mms do claim lives, but our thirty years of counter-insurgency operations should have equipped skill-wise our law enforcing agencies to effectively, meaningfully and trustingly handle a single or two 9mm brandishers.

The costliest example of the 9mm phenomenon is the recent case in the heart of the central business district at the heart of the province's capital. This had claimed the lives of people including one of a woman with a six-month old pregnancy. Whatever the case, death of a pregnant woman is sorrowfully condoled everywhere under the sun.

But in the case of Manipur it implies much more than this. Now Puyas are being referred (even if it is gossip, it commands social acceptability) to, and the psyche of the threatened minds of the people is put under yet greater pressure. There are so many talks doing rounds now of an impending social upheaval.

I only pray that we do not experience another June 18 or post-Manorama instability again in the days to come. But avoiding such an outcome depends upon the governance quality of the land, and certainly not on their capability to enact 9mm plays.

But the core governance issue remains one of not learning from all the doings. As I said above, we have been handling insurgency for at least three decades, and at the end of the day, the entire capital-city of the province is brought to a completely unstable halt to tackle a single 9mm brandisher is the height of not learning from experiences.

Another issue I would like to dwell on today is the issue of media management. Since both insurgents and the media have a certain kind of naturally symbiotic relationship in terms of looking for publicity of effectiveness of operations, the media image of the state law enforcing agencies is critical.

It is important to see to it that no insurgent organization takes any credit for any accomplished action, and thus prevent it from enjoying any public attention. But this media strategy has to be necessarily accompanied by another policy.

While every attempt should be made to see to it that the state security agencies get all the publicity possible for all right accomplishments and as frequently as possible, it is equally paramount that no negative publicity through the media takes place. It is just not the effectiveness, but the image as well which is critical.

But putting the entire capital, and the capital-city at that, to a halt for a 9mm betrays the lack of command of the technology in hand, absence of coordination and lack of appropriate common-sense. It is plain bad publicity.