The Problem of ‘alternatives’

By: Phanjoubam Linthoingambi

It is ironical to say that Manipur has become synonymous with violence. The once flourished place, which has been extolled by the poets as the paradise, jewels, etc., has now lost its charm in the entangled-webs of power, violence, greed, selfishness, insanity. It looks the earth has dried up, the flower has withered. It no longer rains water; it rains of blood, and every day we quench our thirst by the blood of our fellow human beings.
We clever minds have the ‘problem of all the solutions’. It seems it is now woven into our minds that we acted in such a manner as to aggravate any situation that came our way, making it more complicated. How shall we justify these brutal acts of eliminating the non-Manipuris in Manipur, this will serve as the yardstick of another ethnic cleansing? Or, for that matter, the killings of innocent people in fake encounters, or kidnapping and murdering of individuals by gunmen for ransom ?Aren’t we tired of all these bloodshed? Aren’t there any other ‘alternatives’ than to kill the migrants? What will be the outcome? Will killing tackle the problem of influx of the non-Manipuris in Manipur? Is killing justified? Of all the other alternatives, why this?
One should not think, mind is a dangerous thing, when it starts to work so many thoughts come out that it becomes hard to choose a specific one leading to confusion. Well, just as a citizen of India exercising her civil rights, I would like to express that checking the influx by one of the ‘alternatives’ of killing the migrants might not be a very good idea. Has anybody thought of the outcome? Almost every house in Manipur has their siblings or relatives residing or studying outside Manipur. After hearing the news, calls after calls came from families, friends, etc. informing us of these gruesome acts. ‘News’ stating that north Indians have starting killing Manipuris in Delhi started spreading like wild fire, making us shiver with fear. Fingers crossed, we hoped these to be ‘rumours.’ And luckily, it was. One does not wish to die or see the death of their own people. Why on earth are these things happening? Ah! Again, the thought struck the mind. The checking of influx of the non- Manipuris in Manipur. Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh or Mizoram has very less number of immigrants, Why is it not so in Manipur?
Aren’t there any other alternatives than to murder people? Instead of murdering the people, we as a responsible citizen can urge the Government to take up all the necessary steps to prevent such influx. Are our ‘leaders’ morons or unaware of the ‘inner line permit system’ which could be effectively implemented in our state. The system is in force in Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Why not in our state? Another alternative would be to stop selling lands to non-Manipuris .It is a strict no-no in some other north-eastern states. Shouldn’t we blame our own brethren for this? The citizens should be at least aware of these facts that if they start selling their properties to non-Manipuris then some years down the line we would be licking their shoes in our own land. Let us stop selling our lands to them. Whom shall we blame? The person who is luring or the person who is being lured? Such trivial points will yield larger outcome. These would solve the problem gradually. Let us remember ‘ Rome was not built in a day.’ Every society has a right to preserve its own culture. These influxes are polluting our already polluted state, and these killings are making matters worse. But there are several other ‘alternatives’. At times it becomes very hard to justify the killing of human beings. We could at least give a try if there are other ways of handling problems rather than just bluntly killing people. We don’t fight the rain with a sword, we mend the cracks in our house, shut the windows so that the rain does not come inside our house. How many will be killed? 100s? 1000s? Will that make any difference in this strife-torn state? With hard feelings people will flee from Manipur.
Well, we don’t exist alone in this big world; we need the help of others too. Manipur is just 22,327 sq.km big. How big is the rest of India? Don’t we depend on these rest part for our livelihoods? There are thousands of people residing outside Manipur. We will lament if things were the other way round. We would be really proud if we were little sagacious in handling problems concerning the larger part of the society to whom we depend.
Sometimes these grey cells create too many ‘alternatives’ that these become a problem. A big chaos makes people fed-up, and by leaving all these sane alternatives aside, chooses the most unwanted step – killing.