The way forward
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 12, 2023 -

NOTED author, anthropologist and reputed scholar on Northeast East region Rami Niranjan Desai has expressed strongly belief that disarmament, disengagement from violence and dialogue between the two warring communities of Meitei/Meetei and Kuki-Chin will bring a solution to the crisis that is besieging the tiny northeastern state of Manipur for more four than four months now.

Participating in a National Youth Festival organized by Manipur University Students' Union (MUSU) on the theme of "Democracy, Dialogue and Co-existence", she also noted that the effort to hold dialogue between the two warring communities will not be an easy one as the trust between them had already been broken.

Nonetheless, she was hopeful that since the stakeholders are standing together, the way forward may not be as complex and complicated as one would like to think as there are means to come out with logical solutions and some sort of ideas which are common to both the conflicting parties still prevailed.

So, she suggested, the first step towards resolution of the present crisis in the state should be holding dialogue between the leaders of the two warning communities.

She has rightly pointed out that while initiating the dialogue, the individual responsibility and accountability of the people as well as that of the state government in the ongoing crisis need to be acknowledged as well.

She also highlighted the fact that the current crisis has put Manipur at the centre of public consciousness, and the rest of the country knows much more about Manipur now than ever before, including the issue of infiltration from Myanmar other troubled regions, its impact and realization about the demographic changes.

Coming from an individual, who is not a party to the present conflict and has nothing to lose or gain from it in the relative sense of the term, such suggestions for resolving the present crisis in Manipur should be appreciated.

However, if we study carefully what Rami had said, we would come to know that there is nothing new in the suggestion for disarming both the warring sides so as to disengage them from continuing the cycle of senseless violence and pave the way for dialogue between leaders of the two warring communities.

Because these are the same things that the people of Manipur, who have been thrown into a situation from which there seem to be no clear-cut exit, have been saying all along, over and over again.

But the trust deficit between the two warring communities that Rami has talked about has widen so much so that both the parties are not ready to take a break from their senseless killings and listen to what the other party is trying to say.

This a great tragedy. And, this tragedy has been further compounded by the insensibility of the so-called leaders on either side of the clash divide wvho have never ever come down from their high ivory towers but are watching the unfolding destruction deftly engineered by them by whipping up passion among the people and most importantly, the failure of the elected representatives and the government machineries to contain the situation from going out of control.

It has been more than four months now that the fire of communal hatred has been blazing.

It is time for the suffering people to say enough is enough and come together for finding a solution to the protracted crisis, not from anywhere else but from within.

This should be our way forward.