Saturday, November 8, 2008
Manipur and the AFSPA
Hmm, I don't know how to start on this... I recently came to know about the situation in Manipur (I hate writing about it; you can google it yourself - just type manipur + manoroma) .... as an Indian citizen I am shocked by India's attitude to Manipur. Is Manipur (the North-East in general) a part of India, or is it a colony? True, there are some movements that I know of which are fighting for Independence in Nagaland and perhaps there may be some in Manipur, but by alienating the people of Manipur in the way the Central and the state Governments are doing, it becomes all the more probable that these people will someday hate the rest of India enough to break away from the Indian union. I wish peace to everyone, in Manipur and outside it, and hope that the government at Delhi sees enough sense to withdraw the AFSPA (1958), bring the culprits to book and brings about better contacts between the people and the armed forces - so that even if their presence is necessary in these parts, atleast arbitrary powers like the AFSPA are withdrawn and horrible incidents like the one I've read about never happen again. Also Manipuris should be convinced that they stand to gain much more by being a part of India than by being separate - not just by words (remember the PM's Rs. 10,000 crore package?) but by actions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Undoubtedly, Manipur is India, and India is Manipur just like Delhi or Punjab or Bihar are India, and India is all of them. The Manipuris are our brothers and sisters, and as much Indian as we are. All of India is free today, after a gap of nearly 1200 years. We Indians rule ourselves, we choose our own representatives. No one part should dominate another. We value our freedom. We belong to our family, city, region, religion, but most of all, to our country, India. And India belongs to us.
Every Manipuri, Punjabi, Bengali, Bihari, Maharashtrian, Tamil, Malayali, Kashmiri ... the list goes on - has a right over every part of India.
We are (and have been) a great example for the world. We need to be more united in order to preserve our freedom, though. We only need to look around us, see the condition of people in our neighbouring countries and the freedoms enjoyed by their people, to realise how lucky we are to be in India. Yes, if there are some grievances, if some Indians are oppressing other Indians, it should be corrected as soon as possible. But the means should be peaceful. We have a by-and-large free and powerful media and a largely unbiased judiciary. These should be approached. People should understand how jealous some of our neighbours are, and should therefore become united and work to make the country a stronger one as well as a better place to live in.
Post a Comment