Act or step down
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 14, 2009 -

It is amazing to see the Ostrich like posture maintained by the SPF Government, in the face of the crippling class boycott imposed by three student organisations.

Is it merely a case of a Government not able to think coherently or does this deafening silence mean that the Chief Minister, his Council of Ministers and the suited booted officials and the political class are not at all bothered by the class boycott, simply because all their children and wards are studying outside Manipur ?

Whatever the case may be, there can be no excuse for the Government to remain indifferent to the issue at hand.

Either the Government take up some concrete stand to ensure that the future of the children are not jeopardised or else, if they cannot act with the responsibility that calls of a Government, the Chief Minister should step down. For more than two months, the academic pursuit of the young students have come to a standstill.

As we have said before, this is not only a case of the young students, staring at the grim prospect of losing an academic year, but also about disorienting them.

As things stand, even failing to attend class for a day, throw the routine of any young student out of gear and now our young students have not been attending classes for more two months now.

Don't the Government have a responsibility to ensure that no one is denied their right to education, or don't they bother at all because it does not affect their children directly ?

The indifference of the Government to the issue at hand, smacks of something, not only indifference, but an agenda, which is to watch and let the people suffer, in the hope that ultimately there will be a confrontation between the parents and the sponsors of the class boycott.

It is agenda like this that we have to be careful and by all means, the Government needs to be taught a lesson. Jeopardising the future of a generation means putting back the State by at least another 20 years.

Maybe this is what the Government is hoping for and we find this extremely hard to digest. Students being denied their right to attend classes for more than a month, should have also jolted the senses of New Delhi, but obviously, they are not bothered about what happens to our children here.

Maybe Manipur matters to them only when it comes to protecting the interest of Delhi and not the interest of the people.

Why else can the Centre remain so indifferent ? An explanation should have been sought from the SPF Government, the moment it came to their notice that young students of Manipur have been forced to stay at home and not go to schools and colleges for more than a month now.

Will Delhi allow such a situation to fester in States like Maharastra or Gujarat ?

Having said this, we also hope that those behind the class boycott call, search their souls and sincerely study whether boycotting classes is in the interest of the people or not.

After all the present agitation is being launched in the name of the people and no one else's.