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one of the Hindustan Times daily today carries a heading, “Non-locals put under
‘house arrest’ in Manipur”. I had to put down my coffee cup. Without going into
details I made up a mental picture of a riot breaking out and the people with
authority imposing curfew to secure the safety of the mayangs (outsiders) by
imposition of curfew.
It
may be recalled that northeasterners living in Delhi have a renewed sense of
insecurity in the wake of the death of Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania
following an assault on January 29, the rape of a minor girl from Manipur, a
brutal attack against on brothers while they went to buy vegetables and the
stabbing of a youth belonging to Manipur, all within a span of two weeks. Even
the Manipur CM Okram Ibobi Singh met home minister Sushil Kumar Sindhe and
other central leaders in connection with the ‘recist’ attacks in Delhi.
I
have seen and experienced the ability to the Meiteis (non-tribals) to handle
complex situations. They have undergrounds and overgrounds which seemed to work
in tandem. In a situation of atrocities carried out against people from the
northeast, I knew that the finesse of the Meiteis will come to the rescue some
time or another. Perhaps there was mob frenzy in Imphal and perhaps the
authorities reacted by imposition of curfew. That’s what I thought. And I read
on-
“Reacting to the frequent ‘racial attacks’ on northeastern
people in New Delhi, students’ organisations
in Manipur enforced a ‘curfew’ to keep non-locals indoors from 5am on Wednesday”.
Reacting to the racial attacks? Was it a mob that reacted?
Am I reading about mob violence? Are we on the verge of a civil war? And the HT
report goes on-
“The 19-hour ‘curfew’ virtually put under house arrest
roughly 5000,000 non-Manipuris in Imphal and adjoining areas. Most of the
non-locals are traders in central government or private sector jobs. Shops and
businesses establishments run by non-Manipuris remained closed while non-local
students skipped schools and colleges. This followed the ‘curfew’ call by the
Joint Students’ Coordination Committee (JSCC) restricting all outdoor
activities including movement of non-Manipuris”
Surely there is something wrong! And the report quoted a
certain Laishram Reagan, who happens to be a student leader (not a mobster) as
saying, “We took the step to protest the racial attacks and discrimation
against people from the Northeast in mainland India, especially the metros” And
here’s is another line uttered by the spokesperson of JSCC, “We will intensify
our agitation if our demand for enactment of law to fight racial crimes is not
met”
Even though the report is silent on what exactly is the proposed
law, still am in a positive state of mind because the JSCC spokesperson spoke
about a law.
Then another question came to my mind. If JSCC has drafted legislation,
will the Republic of India make it into a law because some Biharis and Marwaris
are held hostage by the popular student body in Imphal? Personally, I don’t
think so. But may be the JSCC leaders hold the view that something is better
than nothing. Is there no other way to impress the Government about the need
for legislation? This I don’t know. I never knew any solution to the problem. Even
so I never lose hope.
As I have said earlier, the finesse of the Meiteis is what I
have been looking forward to all these years. In fact the Meiteis are able to
withhold the benefits of the provisions of the 6th Schedule of the
Constitution of India for 40 years. For a race of their standard the act of
holding mayangs hostage to demand enacting of a law seems a bit too clumsy.
Even the rhetoric against the mayangs is ingriguing. The
target of racial discrimination in the mainland is unmistakable- the chinkies.
But when it comes to the perpetrators, at least as far as the recent cases are
concerned, it does not seem proper to point fingers at the mainstream Indians
as a whole. In a diverse country like India, not only the northeasterners, but
most residents feel insecure in Delhi and other metros, which is why people have
adapted to certain norms which look odd to the free minds of the
northeasterners.
