In the game of creating crisis as part of the ongoing demand of affiliation to the Nagaland Board of Secondary Education, a hill based students' body supported by many NGOs of the Nagas in the four hills districts have found a new strategy of strike. The new strategy is to destroy and damage the Government School located in the four hill districts and this has caused much headache to the Government and Mr O Ibobi is facing a new problem to handle with.

Burning of Government properties is a new found method of pressure tactics. This new strategy though originated from the valley is now spreading in the hills also. It is not an exaggerated statement that the authorities have awoken to reality only after many valuable properties are reduced to cinders.

In the demand of introduction of Meetei Mayek many valley based students bodies burnt books of Manipuri language written in Bengali script. The burning of the Central Library is still a vivid example of the violent nature of the protesters which cost us a property which cannot be measured by monetary units.

If these forms of protest are the easiest way to strike to the core, then we cannot blame ANSAM and others for the fireworks they had done with the text books prescribed by the BSEM.

But the complex and more serious problem associated here is that ANSAM resorts to such forms of protest not to rewrite the text books in conformity with the history and culture of the Nagas but used as a device to severe ties with BSEM and shift the affliction of the schools in the hills to another State.

In the clarification to the demands, the Naga Students' body blames the text books of BSEM mainly on the following points
(i) Introduction of Meetei Script or Mayek in the text books
(2) Imposition of dress code
(3) Histories and culture of the Nagas are distorted or not appropriately represented in the text books.

Let us not speak of the entire world but only of our India. The prescribed syllabus for schools and colleges by NCERT are centred mainly on imparting knowledge on language, history, mathematics, science including social sciences.

There are rooms for technical knowledge, management knowledge, appreciation of Art in different branches of studies in the higher level. There is definitely local adjustment or local content in historical and cultural studies depending on the social and cultural environments.

For introduction of Meetei Mayek, it is clear that it is not forced upon those who don't want to use it. Schools in the hills and Non-Meiteis are allowed to use English alphabets or Roman scripts instead of Meetei Mayek. Even if the Tangkhuls and Kukis have their original scripts, if they want to use it instead of Roman script, it must be supported and encouraged.

For dress code at the school, it is to be noted here that a uniform dress code do help in creating a good academic atmosphere. If there is no strict dress code then all the educational institutions whether in the valley or in the hill will automatically be turned into a study cum fashion show centre.

Yes, in the valley schools, girls in the Higher Secondary and College level are advised to wear phanek because the traditional dress of the women here is phanek. There will be no problem if there is a different dress code of their own in the hills.

In that situation a valley student who goes there to learn then he or she have to follow the dress code of the school or the community. I have seen a school in the Tamenglong district where the students wear their traditional coloured dress as school uniform.

As for distortion of the histories of the hill people in the text books, it should not blamed entirely on the Meeteis. All the histories of the world are not hundred percent correct but corrected after many research works by distinguished and learned scholars.

For examples, the phrase 'Sepoy Mutiny' used by the British historian was changed into 'first war of Independence' by Indian writers in due course of time. In fact many distinguished historians of present day Manipur belonged to the Nagas.

They know well and if the history of Nagas were wrongly written it can be corrected. The Meeteis were also once a victim of wrong enforced history of the descendents of the Arjun of the Mahabharata.

As for other branches of knowledge, there is no Nagaland mathematics and Manipur mathematics. The Pythagoras theorem holds true not only for Manipuris and Nagalanders but also for the entire world. Like this Newton's Theory of Gravity, Archemedes Principal are the principles which cannot be altered by geographical boundaries.

So, the agitation of the students of the four hill districts can be taken as an outward sign of a deeply rooted agendum and all of us know who is the perpetrator of all these happenings.

If grace and cheerfulness are the outward and visible sign of an inward harmony of soul, then anger and violent outburst leading to damage and destruction will be an outward and visible sign of a volcano within.

From this point of view, as the health and way of life of a society as a whole can be compared to the health and way of life of an individual the recent violent outburst by many students bodies and civil organisations leading to destruction and damage of public properties is a self inflicted injuries which will do no good in the end.

So instead of disrupting the academic atmosphere of the students it is better to sit across the negotiating table and find an amicable solution to the existing problem.

If the students body is hellbent about the demands the ultimate loser will be the innocent students. It is the duty of the State Govt to invite the students body to talk over the matter.

Sooner will be the better.