The lull before the storm
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: April 13, 2024 -

What happen when a chronic disease is not given the required treatment in time or while there is still time? Of course, it comes back to hit hard, sooner than expected; and that too, at the most inopportune moment.

This is precisely what has happened in the state today, much to the embarrassment of the ruling party which is trying its best to demonstrate to the world that the situation in the strife-torn Manipur has been normalised to the extent of being conducive enough for the people to take part in the five-yearly democratic exercise of electing representatives of the people to the lower house of the Indian Parliament.

But, just like a chronic disease that had been left ignored without the required attention to proper care and management, the ghost of the ethnic conflict between the Meitei/Meetei and Kuki-Chin communities that has been lingering for nearly a year now with no solution in sight seems to have come back to haunt the ruling party in the light of incident of arson on a private saw mill at Pallel in Kakching district and the gun-fight that took place not far from Heirok village in Thoubal district on the intervening night of April 11 and 12.

With total disregard of the fact that Manipur is in the midst of an ethnic conflict that has so far led to loss of hundreds of precious human lives and displacement of thousands of families on both sides of the clash divide, forcing them to seek shelter in the relief camps; the incumbent government in the state has been making hectic preparations for the general elections to the 18th Lok Sabha.

Even special arrangements have been made for the eligible voters from among the displaced people languishing in the relief camps to exercise their franchise with scant concern for the harrowing experiences these people, whose houses have been razed to the ground and become refugees in their own land, have gone through or what they are want at the moment.

Just like in precious confrontations, there would be allegation and counter allegation between the two warring communities over which side started firing the gun this time as well.

But this is insignificant as we are in the middle of an unresolved crisis even if the government wanted the people to think otherwise. While the two sides have not shown any sign of retreat from their respective position all along, the government has also done nothing precious to end the hostility.

So, when the guns remained silent mysteriously after the schedule of 18th Lok Sabha elections was announced; people have been left confused, wondering over the power of politics to make and unmake a society.

But the uneasy calm and ominous silence that prevailed in the state has turned out to be the proverbial lull before the storm that the people have been apprehensive of.

With the renewed gun-fighting between the two warring communities occurring within five days of Union Home Ministry ordering withdrawal of 20 companies each of CRPF and BSF from Manipur for deployment in election duties elsewhere across the country, one could only imagine what would be the situation like when the small number of companies of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Shasastra Seema Bal (SSB), which the ministry is also mulling to pull out from the state for election duties, is carried out.

The security vacuum to be created after the withdrawal of all these security forces is going to serve as the perfect ground for the two warring communities to engage in even fiercer gun-battle if they happened to have stockpiled their respective arsenal during the lull days.

Despite the allegation of ineffectiveness or wanting in performing their duty of keeping Manipur from going up in flames for nearly one year now, presence of large central security forces in the state has been helping at least in keeping the two warring communities at bay, and of course, giving the bragging right to the government of normalising the situation even if everyone knows it is far from reality.