Manipur crisis
The crisis in the State is far from over with many complex narratives; there is a need to arrive at a negotiated truth
1 opponent (purvapaksha) must be taken seriously — not because one loves the opponent but because one needs to understand the opponent better if one has to win an argument.
2 samvad
That is how the tradition of samvad (dialogue) constitutes a major component of this long-standing tradition.
3 The opposite is coercion and violence, which are outcomes of a monologue / अकेले व्यक्ति का लंबा भाषण possessed by those who ‘own’ the truth!
. Today it is found among conflicting nationalities, religious communities or ethnicity — whether it is in Israel, Nuh, or Manipur.
4 As Gaza bleeds
there is no objective statement of truth that can explain the large-scale violence and human tragedy that is engulfing the country.
While some find fault with the initial point of ignition by Hamas, there are others who are worried about the quantum of destruction that the Palestinians have faced.
The crisis in the State
The Manipur crisis
1 The Manipur crisis has been running for over five months now, and we are nowhere close to the truth of how and why the violence happened, and which is still continuing.
2 While many civil society bodies on either side are carried away by the violent turn of events, there are others stuck with propounding their larger narratives and demolishing ध्वस्त the narratives of the opponent.
The Editors Guild of India faced stiff resistance from the Meiteis
🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺
The Editors Guild of India (EGI)
is a non-profit organization of journalists in India. The EGI was founded in 1978 by Kuldip Nayar.
The EGI's objectives are to:
1 Protect press freedom
2 Raise the standards of editorial leadership of newspapers and magazines
3 Commit to free, fair, and independent journalism
4 Improve the standards of newspaper editors
The EGI's members include:
Shekhar Gupta, Editor, The Print
Raj Chengappa, Group Editorial Director, India Today
N Ravi, former Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu
TN Ninan, Chairman, Business Standard
Alok Mehta, former Chief Editor, Outlook (Hindi)
Rajdeep Sardesai, Consulting Editor, TV Today Network
🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺
— the allegation is that the Guild has put out a biased report that favours the Kukis.
Subsequently, the Guild had to seek the Supreme Court of India’s help to neutralise the first information reports filed by the Manipur Police.
Since then, the pace of all other fact-finding committees seems to have slowed down, with the larger picture of truth still to materialise.
There have been a few truths about some specific cases
Police investigation under the Unified Command structure has cracked cases related to the
🌺parading of two Kuki women who were stripped,
🌺the kidnapping and killing of two Meitei students,
🌺the arrest of former cadre of the banned People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur,
🌺 followed by the arrest of a Kuki militant following a bomb blast at multi-ethnic Kwakta village.
🌺 Several Manipur-based drug traffickers have been arrested in Mizoram, Assam, Tripura and Delhi, pointing to the spread of illegal activities
and the large-scale involvement of people in the trade.
The arrests show that the civil administration is slowly stirring / increasing back to life.
The hardliners and their politics
the fact is there were instances where armed militants have inspired members of their affiliated community to call themselves as a ‘people’ vis-à-vis an ‘enemy’ in the other community.
The torching of houses, cold-blooded killings, and the inhuman treatment of women and children are influenced by the presence of armed militants and a false sense of impunity among some people.
There are larger narratives such as an
- imagined Kuki nation,
- insurgency across the border,
- illegal migration,
Focus on its bonds
Amidst these complex narratives, there is a need to arrive at a holistic truth; a truth that preferably must be agreed by all.
There is not only a need for dialogue but also a verification of the facts claimed in these narratives.
The search for a holistic truth cannot be done without the presence of the contending parties.
The narratives of the hardliners are extremely problematic for these are shaped by the politics of exclusion, which allows little room for dialogue.
realities of life in the State
On the contrary, co-existence, the matrimonial bonds, and spatial sharing among the ethnic communities are the realities of life in the State.
People seem to forget the long existing multicultural life of Manipur while having been dragged into the violent politics of the present.
Dialogue
it does not necessarily mean political agreement. Rather, it is about cross-checking each other’s claims and counter-claims.
Negotiated truth is possible when the contesting parties recognise amiability in arguments, and show an openness to the outcome.
India’s intellectual tradition of samvad
is an invitation to an openness with truth. This requires enormous moral strength in the practitioners of a dialogue.
And the result can be peaceful and long lasting. It is an attempt to understand the other’s point of view and politics better.
It is also about freeing oneself to a committed truth, letting it open to scrutiny by the other party. Manipur needs a platform for samvad, however small, amidst the violence and the mistrust.
source the hindu
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