Flavour of the season :: Ground rules : Selective protest, selective silence
- Sangai Express Editorial :: July 08 , 2013 -

Ground rules. Suddenly this seems to have caught the fancy of quite a large number of civil society organisations, especially in the backdrop of the killing of six NSCN (K) cadres at K Songlung village on June 22 and the raid at the residence of the president of the Zomi Revolutionary Organisation at Churchandpur in the dead of the night on July 3.

Both incidents involved the Assam Rifles and groups which have inked peace pacts with the Government of India under the name, ceasefire and SoO.

The Sangai Express has always argued and pointed out the flagrant violation of ground rules of the pacts signed between the different armed groups and the Government, involving Delhi and Imphal.

Nobody, least of all civil society organisations, especially from the hills, seemed to pay any attention to the flagrant violation of the ground rules but now the table seems to have been turned.

Civil society organisations have come out in the open and have managed to take the people along with them in raising their voices against the violation of the ground rules by the security forces, the Assam Rifles in this case.

A positive fall out, if one many say from two unfortunate incidents.

Here it is important to keep in mind that ground rules apply not only to the security forces or the Assam Rifles but also to the armed groups and both parties are equally guilty of violating the ground rules.

This is the simple and plain fact. Percentage cuts from the salaries of Government employees and dipping their fingers on contract works, ‘taxes’ on the highways, kidnapping or abducting for ransom, moving around with arms, serving extortion notices on business establishments are all common occurrences in this place which is choc-a-bloc with peace treaties and agreements which have come under different nomenclatures.

That not a single, organised voice of protest against such practices have been witnessed reflects the ground reality.

A people brow beaten into quiet submission, with the security forces looking the other way round.

Civil society organisations which are today crying hoarse against the violation of ground rules by the security forces need to swallow and digest the truth, however bitter it may be.

Selective protest. Selective silence.

This has been the strategy adopted by a number of civil society organisations and such a trend cannot be good for society as a whole, especially the upcoming generation.

Silence may be the better part of valour at times, but yet at the other end of spectrum also stands the truism that raising one’s voice becomes a necessity when it comes to justice and equality.

How faithfully have the civil society organisations and by extension, the public have been to this universal truth is open to question.

By all means, if the allegation of fake encounter at Songlung village is true, then things should be taken to its logical conclusion and the uproar raised by the civil society organisations is on track.

In the same light, the spontaneous voice of protest raised against the raid at the residence of the president of ZRO some time back by the security forces should be backed and supported.

By the same yardstick, such organised protest should also be held with the same intensity when any of the armed cadres break or violate the ground rules.

There cannot be two sets of ground rules. SoO, the license given to the security forces to throw their weight around, is an eye catching phrase coined by some civil society organisations.

Turn this argument on its head and it may well be said that SoO has also come to mean a license given to some of the armed groups to issue diktats and extract their pound of flesh from the public.

The ultimate point is, ground rules should be applicable to all groups involved in the pact.

Selective protest and selective silence is certainly not the answer to the peace that is being pursued.

This is the bottomline.