"It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world"

Amar Yumnam *

The title of this piece is a statement of Mary Shelley (1797-1851). What is happening around us and in our own land leave us wanting so much for justice that the time has now come for us to deeply ponder over this and ponder without shirking.

When we deliberate over this issue, we need to be sincere with each other and avoid attaching meanings other than those specifically implied in the interventions. Implications of actions and meanings attached to the instigated implications seem to have cost crucial lives in this beloved land of ours.

Justice, Not the Gratia After Death:

What we all aspire as human beings is justice while still alive, but not the ones delivered after life. This necessarily implies the necessity for all of us to be very critical of our actions, evaluate them and act on them with absolutely certain conviction so that no room is left for others to question our steps. This is particularly important if the actions involve the career or lives of people for the actions taken should be lessons for society to emulate and deterrent for all intended wrong doers.

While acting on the convictions, we need to be as well sure of the fact that the punitive actions in particular do not leave any room for others to doubt if we have spared for convenience our relatives in one form or another. While as human beings we cannot ensure absolute neutrality, we have to endlessly endeavour for that. But the trend in recent years, I am afraid, has been to the contrary of these norms of justice.

While I express my reservations on the weaknesses of recent actions from the perspective of justice, I apply it to all state and non-state actors. Everybody knows that the functioning of the state as manifested in the actions of the various departments of the government leave much room to be desired.

The state seems to have sacrificed all the established norms of governance when it comes to her functionings for the people. What is most unfortunate and more fearsome for us is that this characteristic seems to have percolated to the non-state sectors as well.

The Search for Roots:

Every contemporary social phenomenon today must have roots in the past, recent past as well as the distant past, functionings of the society itself. The contemporary dreary social scenario too must be traced to the functionsnings of the society and the state in the past.

While doing so, we need to confine ourselves particularly to the post-merger scenario of Manipur for that was a landmark. While many new modernising elements can be rooted in this event, we are afraid if the present scary scene as well is to be traced to the post-merger interventions of the state.

Here I would particularly single out the hated Armed Forces Special Powers Act. While the administration might have logic of her own justifying the long-term imposition of this legalisation, what is significant for us are the deep rooted social lessons this has had on the psyche of functioning of the people and organisations.

Over a period of time, we have seen two very unfortunate happenings. First, we have witnessed excesses by the armed forces and getting away with that. Secondly, we have seen a marked deterioration in official behaviour over the years under the cover of this act.

These two manifestations have been the most conspicuous lessons for social learning during the last two or more decades. This has implied to the people that if they have power, in any form, they have the right to indulge any and get away with that. In this increasingly dominant social character, justice as we understand it has no place.

Everything gets justified if it is acted upon and none can counter it. The act can never be undone and the justice meted is above questioning. Unfortunately this has become the dominant behaviour for all the social actors in the society, and in the process lives are getting lost without accountability.

The time has now come for all of us to rethink if this is the proper lesson for all of us in a society to absorb and digest as a permanent solution to the ills plaguing us.