Utter madness since May 3 evening : Politics of violence
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 30, 2023 -

The body count continues. The number of houses razed to the ground continues. Clashes continue.

Total madness it is, all driven by a blind hatred, so blind that ask anyone on the street why this hatred and no one will be able to give a coherent reason.

There has to be something to keep the ember of hatred burning for nearly 60 days and obvious that this something are the highly volatile choice of words and political goals spelt out by some of the more prominent and vocal civil society organisations and political personalities.

But who cares ? Certainly not the so called social leaders, whose choice of words and expressions have led to more clashes, more cases of arson and more deaths.

The most such elements do and will do is spew venom to keep the fire burning and say a word of prayer for the departed souls, while the departed soul will just be another figure to be added to the list of the dead.

It is the same with the bereaved family members, who will go on to be remembered merely as just another family whose son, uncle or father was killed in probably the ugliest ethnic clash that Manipur has seen.

This is where people need to apply their mind and think over the question, who stands to gain from the ongoing clash ?

Certainly not the family whose house has been razed to the ground, not the bereaved family and certainly not the orphans and widows.

It is when people lose their mind that schemers of different hues and colour will emerge to take their pound of flesh, and the biggest tragedy is when people refuse to listen to the voice of reasoning and all that good sense stands for.

First thing first. Stop the propaganda. Stop playing the victim card. Everyone here is a victim.

Nearly 60 days down the line and thousands of people continue to stay in relief camps opened all over the place underlining the point that they have lost their homes.

What more could be more tragic than this, other than the lives that have been lost in the madness that continues to this day.

It is only the fortunate few who have been able to go to Delhi, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Shillong and even Aizawl but not many belong to this class of people who have the means to go and find shelter in some other cities.

But who cares about the reality staring everyone in the face ?

Certainly not those who have been adding fuel to the fire by donning the garb of champion of one group of people or the other.

What is the way forward ?

No one expects any magic formula, but it would help so much if the Government can show what steps it has taken up and what it plans to do to defuse the situation.

Something more promising than to dismantle bunkers on either side is expected from the Government.

Even before its take off, the Peace Committee is already dead.

The separate administration call cannot and should not be the rider for any peace process to take off.

Sticking to it is akin to setting down pre-conditions or plainly stating that they do not want normalcy but want to prolong the confrontation and the killings.

Set the separate administration call as the pre-condition for any peace process to start and at the same time continue enforcing the highway blockade at Kangpokpi cannot be more farcical than this.

This is the reality, a reality which the Government cannot afford to overlook.

A dialogue, this is what is needed, but when pre-conditions are hawked about and agenda to serve their own end continue to be displayed with a sense of impunity, then it comes close to showing one’s middle finger to any efforts to restore normalcy.

This is what people on either side of the clash divide should acknowledge and see how such radical elements can and should be neutralised, for as noted earlier here, it is the common people who stand to suffer and not those standing behind and pushing the people with their agenda which is nothing but politics of violence.