Witoubou Newmai
It may not be too off track to say that any incident, whether faint or highly charged, mob or riot, can be symptoms of protracted issues which are either dormant or active in many societies. On that count, treating a given incident and let it go with quick-fix or pain-killer measures, without making honest efforts to diagnose the underlying issues, which must follow, will only compound the problems.
One must note that prolonging employment of the pain-killer policy amplifies and thickens the smokescreens which the ‘powers that be’ love to employ. But what panacea is left after the immunity to the pain-killer or adhoc measures?
With no visible tried-and-true policy so far to address many peculiar issues, and with concerned people or authorities not willing to explore ways and means in this regard, those societies confronted by unresolved issues will continue to sit on the protracted issues for a longer period.
The recent incident of Chassad in Kamjong district of Manipur State (it was under Ukhrul district until a few years ago) may be cited to elucidate the point of discussion.
Though the State Government of Manipur and some sections of people are trying their best to project the incident of Chassad as an inter-village issue, the unfurling polarization of the episode indicates lurking bigger issues.
The State Government of Manipur banning internet in the whole State as a pre-emptive measure hours after the Chassad incident on March 16 speaks volumes---it knows that the incident is more than a minuscule inter-village issue that carries potentials to escalate and overwhelm the whole State and beyond. The follow-up press statements of ‘for and against’ from various quarters are ample signs of a gathering storm.
In the general context or in many societies, whenever any incident crops up, dying down of billowing plumes of smoke and the people working their way back to everydayness are often construed as ‘returning to normalcy’, while the climax of the incident will continue to be the centre of discussion for sometime. But the most important thing to be noted is, concerned authorities often miss their points when causes or factors which triggered the incident or mob fury are made to receive little or no study.
‘Returning to normalcy’ argument is often used to signal an end of the story in an attempt to forget the bigger issues which are dormant or active, and this actually compounds the various situations with time.
Here, we are not outrightly complaining about the inability of concerned authorities to find a solution. We are only blaming all those who matter for not making any honest effort to find what we may call as solutions.
One must not forget that sincere and committed endeavours themselves are solutions, too, for they also serve much in the absence of the actual solutions.
