Questioning the silence with a roar
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: July 03, 2024 -

LOOKING at the number of posts and reposts on various social media platforms, one can safely say that everyone, including MLAs and loyalists of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Manipur, is talking about the maiden speech delivered by Dr Angomcha Bimol Akoijam in the Parliament on Monday.

During his speech, the newly elected Member of Parliament (MP) to the 18th Lok Sabha from Manipur highlighted the "troublesome moment in the history of India that has never Happened called The Tragedy of Manipur which is sought to be silenced by the government".

Taking part in the discussion on the President's address, Dr Bimol said that the Indian state is remaining as a mute spectator to this tragedy even though "more than 60,000 people have been languishing in relief camps in wretched conditions for the last one year" and 200-plus people have died in Manipur, where a civil war-like situation is prevailing with people armed to the teeth are roaming around and fighting each other to defend their villages.

He also reminded the august House that each and every square centimetre of Manipur is currently covered by central armed forces and it is one of the most militarized areas in this country where there are more armed policemen than the civil police besides the armed forces of the Union.

"Despite this, how is that 60,000 people were rendered homeless and villages in thousands were destroyed and yet our Prime Minister remain mute, not even a word, and the presidential address did not even mention that," he questioned, while adding "I said that this silence is not normal. It is a reminder of the fact which many scholars have said that there is a continuity between colonial and the postcolonial period".

Understandably, this fiery speech from a political novice, who made it clear that "the hurt, the anger has thrown a nobody like me to be part of this Temple of Democracy beating the BJP cabinet minister," has resonated with a lot of people.

The fact that Manipur has been roiled by an unprecedented ethnic conflict that broke out on May 3, 2023 after the Kuki-Chin people clashed with the Meetei/Meitei over the latter's demand for recognition as scheduled tribe (ST) and so far, hundreds of precious human lives have been lost and rendered homeless thousands of families on both sides of the clash divide is something well known to everyone today.

But the more than the suffering brought on by the ethnic conflict, it is the continued silence of the government of India to the unfolding humanitarian crisis that the people of Manipur have been hurt the most.

Apart from the failure of containing the violence despite deployment of large number of central security forces, the usually vocal Prime Minister of the country has also remained inexplicably silent from speaking on "The Tragedy of Manipur" or spare some time from his busy foreign trips and election campaigning to pay a visit to the strife-torn state.

So, Dr Bimol hit the nail on the head when he roared, "Is this silence communicating to the people of the Northeast and Manipur in particular that you don't matter in the Indian State scheme of things?" and went on to point out if the government of India had an iota of concern for Manipur, whose sons and daughters have contributed their mite in various fields, be it in defence, sports, art and culture, etc., then there would not have been silence on the Manipur crisis in the Parliament nor in the Presidential address.

Interestingly, an MLA of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Manipur seems to have completely missed the point when he reacted with a tweet on his X handle, "Failed to address core issues of illegal migrants, SoO and NRC amongst others," without understanding the fact that the discussion was on the Presidential address which made no mention of the 14-month long Manipur crisis.