Lining up five days blockade :: Awaiting Govt’s response
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 06 2018 -

Remains to be seen how the BJP led coalition Government will respond to the five days economic blockade call jointly given by the All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur (ATSUM), All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur (ANSAM) and the Kuki Students’ Organisation, general headquarters (KSO GHQ) starting from 5 am of October 9, but to be sure people are bound to draw comparisons.

Remember how student leaders were rounded up when AMSU, DESAM, MSF, AIMS, KSA and SUK called a 48 hour bandh from midnight of September 26 to midnight of September 28.

Significantly none of the arrested students have been released till date and the natural question that follows is whether the BJP led Government will crack the whip and arrest the student leaders of the tribal student organisations likewise or whether they will be given a long rope.

The 48 hours bandh and the proposed economic blockade all centre around the same issue, the ongoing crisis at Manipur University.

It is a different matter that the two on either side of the bandh and blockade divide see the MU crisis from totally different perspectives.

While the two days bandh was called on the demand to release all the teachers and students as well as in condemnation of the midnight raid at MU campus and to respect the MoA signed on August 16 in letter and spirit the proposed economic blockade call has been raised on the cry to let normalcy return to MU.

That the 48 hours bandh has not had the desired result is there for all to see and it is anybody’s guess how the proposed blockade will ensure the return of normalcy at MU.

The interesting question is, is the proposed action of ATSUM, ANSAM and KSO solely guided by the motive to let normalcy return to MU or is there something more than what has been said ?

Interesting to note too that apart from the proposed economic blockade, the three student organisations also raised the demand for a Hill Central University.

An apprehension which has been aired here on more than one occasion and it is clear that the AP Pandey issue has today managed to divide the students so drastically that it has led to a situation where the hill-valley divide seems to have come up prominently.

The very demand for a Hill Central University is a clear statement from the three tribal student organisations that they see the present uproar at MU as the handiwork of some students, teachers and employees who are all from the valley.

Nothing can be more tragic than this. Normalcy at MU. This is what everyone in Manipur want.

But is calling an economic blockade the right way to go about it ?

Everyone knows who gets hit the hardest whenever the free flow of essential items on the highways are stopped.

Do ATSUM, ANSAM and KSO want the common people to suffer ?

Common people who may not even know the finer nuances of what is happening at MU ?

For starters why don’t MUSU sit down with the three student organisations and talk things over ?

Moreover why has the anti-Pandey agitation failed to take everyone along ?

This is an important question that needs the attention of all concerned.