By Wangkheimayum Bhupendra Singh
We are once more at the end of another entertaining yet tumultuous week. Even though the state faces a worrisome scarcity of entertainment avenues, it doesn’t mean that the people have been completely deprived of being entertained. The lack of such avenues in the state has been filled up on a regular basis by the various state as well as non-state actors in the state with their amusing antics which sometimes border to hurtful stupidity. The people of the state as such get to see such amusing antics on a regular basis if not on a daily basis providing the state and its people with ample dosage of entertainment. There are several incidents happening before our own eyes which though by any means don’t define entertainment nonetheless provide entertaining avenues for the public.
The week that just went by was also full of such amusing and foolish antics and incidents, how else could one define the act of the five CDOs including an officer who were suspended for their reported involvement in the disruption of a Laiharaoba procession just before midnight some days ago citing that the carriers of the local deities were only play acting to be uncontrollable. The incident further fanned the anger amongst the local public of the area who took to arms and went on a rampage. The incident managed to hold the attention of the public for some time with the public wagging their tongues on the topic and thoroughly dissecting it. The much dreaded fake encounter also reared its ugly head during the latter part of the week in the state. While local media reported a gunfight between militant suspects and personnel of the Assam Rilfes some days back which left three militant suspects dead; a father of one of the dead claimed the next evening that he had himself attended to the surrender of his own son before a Major of the Assam Rifles on the same day as the reported encounter. The incident though not at all pleasing or amusing for anyone, could well hold the attention of the people of the state for a long time, providing the people in the process with something to amuse themselves. It will be long before the truth comes out in the case nonetheless it must have already set the tongues wagging. Agitations are sure to follow, sit-ins, public meetings, rallies will soon follow and capture the minds of the public for the time being before another entertaining incident comes along and seized the minds of the public from the previous incidents.
Seizure of 21 cartoons of a banned drug from the Imphal Tulihal Airport which originated from the National capital is another interesting and entertaining incident which could amuse the general public for some time. What is interesting in this incident is not the seizure of the banned drugs but the sheer size of the consignment which had managed to reached the only Airport in the state after originating from the National capital. 21 cartoons (each cartoon containing 7000 strips each of 10 tablets) of a banned drug. The state needs a thorough investigation of the incident which in all likelihood is not a one-off incident. Though the police had managed to seize the consignment this time, there might have been times when they had failed to do so and the drugs had made its foray among the youths of the state. While such incidents provide some entertainment for the state, it would not be too much to ask for the setting up of entertainment avenues for the people of the state and for both the state and non-state actors to understand the issue of entertainment in the state.
