Steps needed to resolve issue : Is the Govt listening ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 22 2023 -

The Government should answer this. What steps have been taken or are being planned to be taken up to resolve the issue at hand ?

Or is it a case of the Government just sitting back and hoping for things to take a turn for the better on its own ?

Much as one may abhor the ongoing violence and the number of lives it has claimed on either side, it stands that nothing tangible is seen on the steps taken up to resolve the issue at hand.

The question is, what is the Government doing ?

As stated many times in this column earlier, no one expects a magic formula, but the least that is expected of the Government is to see some measures being taken up to restore a semblance of normalcy.

This is certainly not the time for petty politics, and Manipur has seen this in one way or the other in the recent and not so recent past, but some serious attempts being made to resolve the issue.

The very fact that certain areas have been designated as unsafe for either side should reflect the reality that has come to define Manipur now and if the valley districts have become a strict no no for the Kuki-Zos, then the Meiteis cannot travel beyond Sekmai in the north, beyond Pallel in the south, beyond Moirang in the west and even going beyond Yaingangpokpi in the east would not be comfortable.

This is the reality and a point which The Sangai Express had pointed out many times earlier.

The question is, how long can Manipur afford to continue like this ?

No answer is expected from Imphal but the validity of this question will continue to stand and it will have a huge bearing on how Manipur progresses in the days ahead.

Again, as noted many times in this column, it should not be forgotten that the longer the crisis continues the more Manipur will lose and everyone knows who loses when Manipur lose.

A bare fact this is and this is where it becomes indispensable for the Government to see how to take things, one step at a time, to resolve the issue. Separate Administration cannot be the answer, everyone knows it, so too the ten Kuki-Zo MLAs who have raised this call and this is where the mischief factor in the call cannot be missed.

But this mischievousness should and cannot be allowed to dilute the seriousness behind the very call raised to dismember Manipur.

And it was in line with this that the Privilege and Ethics Committee of the State Assembly had convened a meeting on December 21 to discuss the same.

Formed before Manipur went up in flames on May 3 and before the Separate Administration call was raised, of the 7 members in the committee, one is the Churachandpur AC MLA LM Khaute and his absence from the scheduled meeting did not come as a surprise.

Of the remaining six, only Independent MLA, Sapam Nishikanta, who is also the Chairman of the Committee turned up for the meeting, while the other five failed to turn up.

A serious matter it was and the one line statement that went viral on the social media on December 21 evening was, ‘Except Nishikanta, no other member of the Ethics Committee turned up for the scheduled meeting.’

Imphal has a Government which has down the years, since 2017, earned a degree of infamy for being overly sensitive of what is posted on the social media and one wonders whether any step would be taken up to answer the unasked question in the very statement that has gone viral.

Or isn’t the Separate Administration call that serious a matter that it did not merit for the members of the Ethics Committee to discuss the same ?

Only the members concerned can answer this, but it is as yet unclear how it would have gone down with the public who have for long been demanding some sort of action against the 10 MLAs for going against the very oath they took as Members of the Assembly.

The bottomline is, the stalemate continues.

The Separate Administration call has not been addressed to by the very body constituted by the Assembly.

No one knows if and when this will be addressed and the state of uncertainty will continue to persists.

Exactly not what the doctor would prescribe to show that there is a Government in place.