Time for a reality check
Debunking ideology
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 09, 2012 -

MPA armies on their 22nd raising day - 2009

A reality check is in line. Insurgency, insurgents and the impact of the armed movement on the people will always be central to any discussion on Manipur and why not? Delhi may like to think otherwise, but the armed movement or insurgency cannot be understood only through the prism of some 'misguided youth' taking up guns and waging a bush war against the Government in the jungles and in the lanes and by lanes of the urban areas.

It goes much deeper than this and extends to the realm of the social, political and even economic state of the land and the people and there are reasons for it, though the factors for these are not unconstant.

After a lull of some years after the guns first started booming in the Imphal valley from the late 70s till the mid 80s, insurgency re-emerged in the early 90s with renewed force and vigour and it came cloaked with a call for reforms in many sectors and to purge the ills of corruption and social ills.

And so it was that rapists were eliminated under the parameters of the justice system set up by the armed groups.

Corruption was dealt too and cases of corrupt businessmen and officials having to pay the price for their avarice are well known.

Sanitising society and setting up a system of social values by taking a stand against alcohol, drug abuse, drug trafficking, flesh trade, etc were clearly visible on the agenda of the militant outfits.

These 'missions' were taken up at that point of time when Manipur was in the grip of numerous social ills and malaises.

Corruption had already become institutionalised, drug abuse had started to take a heavy toll on the lives of the young and restless people, drug trafficking had become a lucrative source of livelihood for the unscrupulous and criminal activities, in one way or the other, inter-linked with the ills mentioned began to rear its ugly head.

Kids were murdered for their earrings, cases of women being gang raped by hoodlums began to haunt the collective psyche of the people, drunkards began to lord over some parts of the land.

It was at this juncture that the underground outfits took it upon themselves to try and cleanse the rot within.

Not surprisingly their stock in the views and opinions of the general public grew by leaps and bounds and the number of 'Wakatchabas' which used to appear in the State dailies was a testimony of where they stood in the eyes of the public.

The sense of romanticism associated with the insurrection was palpably unmistakable.

If ideology and the sense of romanticism was what drove youngsters of those days to join the armed movement, today there has been a huge paradigm shift.

Gradually the term, 'multi-crore venture' has begun to take a new meaning.

Ideology is no longer the inspiration, it has lost its magnetism.

Loyalty to the movement is no longer driven by ideology or a political belief but by money and this can be seen in the emergence of the nouveau riche, whose antecedents are anything but honourable.

This is not an attempt to glorify the armed movement in any way but tracing and studying the growth trajectory of a movement which has had a deep impact on the lives of the people here.

The tragedy is made worse by the emergence of a new crop of politicians since the early 90s, a breed to whom service as representatives of the people is nothing but mastering the art of cultivating vote banks by setting off one set of people against another.

It is a potent combination which has drained the sap society as a whole.

When a movement ostensibly launched to 'liberate' the people and the land finds itself treading the same path of the system against which the banner was first raised, then a reality check is in line and pronto.

Maybe a fresh look at the understanding of the term, 'Contractors-Politicians nexus' is needed.

A detailed analysis of the dynamics at work here will not be possible but the writings on the wall are getting more and more clear.

The State agencies throw their weight around and kill with impunity under the immunity granted by such legislations as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and an arrogant Government, while quite a large number of militant outfits too have been harassing the people, issuing diktats and serving ridiculous monetary demands on the people and terrorising them with the fear of death and harm, with impunity under the perceived immunity granted by the term 'freedom fighters.

Blunt it may sound, but a wake up call has been rung out in one way or the other.