Deafening silence of Imphal and Delhi : Half cooked measures
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 04, 2014 -

Geography, more pertinently geographic location cannot be seen in isolation of the programmes and policies of the Government.

All the more reason why the people of a land locked State like Manipur need to be on their toes and question why the Government of the day has failed to address an issue as fundamental as ensuring that the people of a State in an independent India should be deprived of their basic necessities.

With the bandh called by the United Naga Council on the highways connecting Manipur with the rest of the country from 6 am of September 4, to protest the Ukhrul killings on August 30, in force now, the State Government is leaving no stone unturned to send out the message that it is ready to ensure that the general public are not deprived of their daily needs.

So Chief Minister O Ibobi is in Delhi to highlight the matter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh while CAF and PD Minister of the State M Okendro has taken the trouble of announcing to the public the measures taken up by the State Government to ensure that the common people receive their daily needs.

All these are fine and are in line with what is expected from a State Government, but five days after the two people were killed in police firing at Ukhrul, not a word has come from the Centre.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was away in Japan but at least there is something that Delhi could have done to show that it is concerned about the situation in Manipur.

Or maybe the BJP Government may be 'forgiven' on the ground that they came to power only about a 100 days back and hence could not have been sensitive to what is happening in a remote corner of the land.

On the other hand, other than the Rs 5 lakhs (which have been turned down by the bereaved families) offered by the State Government as compensations for the loss of two lives, Imphal and Delhi have been deafeningly quiet on the manner in which the two were killed, with the Chief Minister apparently more than satisfied in talking gibberish about some 'missing arms' of the State security personnel.

Indifference of the State Government whenever its men go on the rampage is not unique to the Ukhrul incident. It has happened before and there is no guarantee it will not happen again.

This has been the bane of successive Governments at Imphal and to make matter worse the same can be said about Delhi.

Characteristically Delhi has not asked how and why the August 30 firing incident took place and has instead issued some sort of an 'advisory' to the State Government to take all pre-emptive measures to ensure that the highways are kept free and flowing.

In other words the Centre has asked the State Government to ensure that apart from keeping the highways free and sanitised, 'national projects are not disrupted'.

The steps taken up by the Centre may be understood in the backdrop of the fact that once the highways are blocked, then it may just provide the right amount of ammos to the Opposition to fire salvos at the 'infant' Government.

So while necessary measures have been spelt out on how the Government hope to meet any exigencies in the coming days, it has not deemed it fit to answer how the necessary goods and items will be at hand for the public.

Rationing fuel is fine, but it still does not answer the question of how fuel will be brought in from outside the State when the highways are blocked. Or is keeping two fuel outlets open on alternate days enough to meet the requirements of the public ? Delhi and Imphal must answer this question.