Potential to snowball into a bigger thing : Appointment ruckus at TRI
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 16 2017 -

If care is not taken, if corrective measures are not initiated, whichever the corrective measures may be, then the appointment ruckus at Tribal Research Institute may snowball into a bigger issue.

Here in this case it is the All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU) which has taken up cudgels against the ‘obstacles’ put up by some officials of Tribal Affairs and Hills Department to the appointment of a candidate named by the MPSC to be appointed to the Tribal Research Institute.

And on the other hand are some hill based student bodies which have backed the appointment and opposed the stand of AMSU.

It is not the case of The Sangai Express to say how true the allegation of AMSU is, but if correct steps are not taken, then it has the potential to snowball into a major stand off and if the past is any lesson, then it may brew more tension between different sets of people.

Obviously the ‘Go to the hills’ slogan coined by Chief Minister N Biren is yet to sink into the sub-consciousness of the people cutting across the valley and the hills and this has been the bane of Manipur for ages.

The best course for the Government would be to refer the matter to the Court and if anyone is found playing hanky panky with the appointment process then the guilty individual/party should be pulled up.

Care also should be taken by all concerned to ensure that the stand off remains a stand off amongst student organisations and does not pitch one set of people against the other.

This is the way forward.

Time is also right for the Government to seriously study why it has become some sort of an accepted thing for student organisations to jump into a process such as the appointment of an official to a Government institution.

A sad reflection of the fact that successive Governments in the past had always failed to ensure fair play and maintain transparency in whatever they did.

One can understand the immense pressure Government Departments have to face while dispensing with their duties, but the matter of greater importance here is how many do take advantage of this ‘pressure’ to violate the laid down process ?

This is an important question and more often than not, Government officials are known to have played around with the system, promoting their near and dear ones and of the factors which qualify one to be the ‘near and dear ones’ here may be understood along many lines.

This is a dangerous game that is being played out. Making it more unpleasant is when powerful student organisations jump into the fray and take things to a bigger dimension.

Is it about the appointment of an individual, is it about ensuring justice, or does it run deeper than this ?

Important questions that ought to be studied with the seriousness they deserve.

It may also be said that the new found love that the BJP led Government has been able to foster between different sections of the people may just be skin deep and it will take more than just ‘going to the hills.’

A point which should not be looked over.

This is all that more important given the fact that different forces are pulling apart the idea of Manipur as a geo-political reality especially with a solution to the ongoing peace talk between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India likely to be inked any time.

Remember too that GoI is actively engaged in a dialogue with SoO groups.