Sickening truth of the rot within
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 02 , 2013 -

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." This is a line spoken by Marcellus, an officer of the Palace Guard, in Act 1 Scene 4 of William Shakespeare's famous play, Hamlet.

Marcellus had just seen the ghost of Prince Hamlet's murdered King-father walking over the palace walls and felt that something is not right and everything is rife with errors from top to bottom.

Well, we are here not for any literary classes, but only alluding to this immortal line that has come to be quoted to describe a situation in which things are unsatisfactory and the mind of the people are perturbed, to bring home the point that not just something, but everything seems to be rotten in our State of Manipur today.

On a day, when members of various civil society organisations were taking out a mass rally at the Capital city Imphal on June 29 to draw the attention of the elected representatives on the need for formation of a House Committee in the ongoing Assembly session to deal with the problems of rising crimes against women and violence in the State, a 14-year old minor girl was abducted and later gang-raped by six men at gun-point in the heart of the city itself.

On the same day, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) formed against the abduction and rape of a Muslim girl student from Yairipok announced its decision of calling a State-wide 24-hour bandh to exert pressure on the Government for arresting the accused persons involved in the heinous crime, who are still on the loose.

On the other hand, even as Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) is gearing up for its July 5 mass rally covering three districts, namely Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur to carry forward the campaign for a 'disturbance free education zone' in the State, the news of a hand grenade left inside the campus of COMET School located at Changangei along Airport-Ghari Road on June 29 by unidentified armed miscreants as threat to the school authority, perhaps, for not meeting their monetary demand, has come out.

All these incidents of rape, violence and intimidation have been going on unabated despite public outcry, and not a day passes off peacefully without hearing any of this disturbing news.

So, one can safely concludes that something is definitely rotten in the whole system of Manipur and protection of girl child or condusive atmosphere for education are just some empty slogans with no serious takers.

Just as the State machineries need to bring about a complete overhauling in their approach to handling the myriad issues afflicting State instead of using force as the first option to quell angry voice of the people; civil society organisations working in the related fields too need to review their campaign to see where they lacks the force from hitting the right target.

But from the manner criminals with nexus with power-that-be are let loose to carry on with their pernicious activities while the vigilant bodies are looking elsewhere in this land where there is no death of issues to espouse, the vicious circle of rape, violence and public outcry would only remain here for long.

Perhaps, CPI seems to have understood this predicament, and has interestingly urged the Chief Minister for providing designated places where public could air their grievances and stage protests.

How funny!