Blind hate : New signature in State :: Basking under politics of hate
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 15, 2023 -

Hate, blind hate at that, is the new signature of those who are apparently calling the shots.

One/two days after the Kuki Inpi, Manipur, (KIM), the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), the Core Committee on Separate Administration and the Co-ordination Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) rejected the Peace Committee set up at the initiative of the Union Home Ministry, Manipur woke up to the news of 9 people shot or hacked to death somewhere at Khamenlok area, a place lying in between Kangpokpi and Imphal East district.

As a sort of a reprisal, the quarter of a Minister was reduced to ashes somewhere at Lamphel and two villages went up in flames at Salam Patong and Thangza village in Kangpokpi district under Nongpok Sekmai police station near Kasom Khullen , a place which comes under Kamjong district.

Confusing it certainly sounds, but this is how the maps of the sixteen districts in Manipur have been drawn and it in the midst of this confusion that ownership claims and rights over land has been asserted by the different ethnic groups in the State.

Manipur went up in flames in the evening of May 3, after the Tribal Solidarity March, and the madness continues.

Over 100 people killed, numerous houses and residential places gutted and thousands displaced and many more continue to be displaced and many more houses continue to go up in flames.

Obvious that hatred has blinded everyone and there can be nothing more naive than expecting a people blinded by hate to listen to the voice of peace and tranquillity.

It is also obvious that the Government at Imphal has failed to rein in the situation and making things worse is obviously the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Or is it a case of the silence saying something profound, so profound that it has blown over the sensibility of the people, the people who matter ?

Or can Manipur expect to see a magic formula being conjured up to be delivered at the time New Delhi deems is right ?

Either way, the silence of the Prime Minister would not have left anyone in Manipur feeling comfortable.

What is the way ahead ? An answer would be hard to find, especially given that there are just too many who know only how to speak the language of hate and suspicion.

This is the reality and any peace process should start with the knowledge that hate is the medium through which people are communicating with each other now.

Hate is the new language and it is disturbing to see how fast the perfectly innocent boys and girls on the streets have picked up this language so fast and so adeptly, so much so that today, hate is the lingua franca of Manipur.

The language of hate cuts across community divide and perhaps no one knows this better than those who are at the forefront taking aims at those on the other side of the clash divide.

The result is arson, killings and making a count of the piling body bags.

This has been the story of Manipur since the evening of May 3 and for over 40 days there has been no interval.

Not a single day has passed by without some confrontation, without a house being razed to the ground and without shots being fired.

To many hate is the new calling to master and like many other aspects of life, there are wannabe masters standing at the back and prodding those in front to take aim and fire a shot.

This is the script that has run through Manipur since the evening of May 3 and tragically the author who has scripted this tragedy does not seem ready to wind up the story told and retold so many times.

This is where a method to the violent madness is starkly visible.