The multiple explosions that rocked Imphal in the month of October have thrown the public in a state of frenzy. The administration in Manipur, apparently reeling under the element of surprise even after five blasts, has offered no satisfactory explanation either through the Chief Minister’s office or the state home department on what appeared to be a complete failure to anticipate the security risks and take pre-emptive steps for sanitization of the commercial centres and crowded places in the Imphal municipality.
Not surprisingly, a post-facto finger pointing pattern has emerged with the State Government putting the blame on the militants and the banned UNLF asserting in a press statement that the series of bomb blasts is part of a clandestine operation by the ‘Indian Occupational Force’ to assign the blame for the lives lost and endangerment on human lives on the insurgents.
What is annoying to most concerned citizens but definitely not cared about by the chief minister is the fact that during the time of such festive marketing the police in other states follow basic security regimen of watching the entry points, sanitising the markets and scrupulous scanning of the crowds. In fact, in cities with high vulnerability to such attacks, the nodal points of the markets are usually barricaded at these times, and precautionary measures like doorframe and hand-held metal detectors are deployed. Informal reports indicates that even after the devastation to its image there is still no plan from the administration to conduct a systematic sweep or secure the markets in advance before the shopping hours start or thereafter screened the individuals in the streets. Fortunately, there has been no attack targeting the Diwali or Ningol Chakkouba shoppers so far, but is not it the responsibility of the state government to formulate a pre-emptive strategy to cut down security risk for the shoppers.
Predictably, the BJP as well as the Trinamool Congress who have sought to make political capital out of the blasts, lost no time in launching attacks on the Ibobi regime of deliberately adopting a casual approach to security. Though, home minister Gaikhangam has shot down the statement from BJP charging the administration of being incapable of running the administration smoothly, he did a great disservice to administration by not providing any substantial proof to counter the question of incapability.
The consternation that the public have been put into in the wake of the serial blast is pitiable. Instead of finding the straw it sought to hang on to, the common man who is drowning in a sea of distress, has been hurled the extra burden of choosing what is right and wrong. Do the claim from the home minister that the militants had carried out the bomb attacks in reciprocation to the arrest of their leaders appears legit or does the militants’ argument that the blasts are a covert mission orchestrated by the security force to destabilize peace in Imphal municipality areas in order to create a conducive atmosphere for re-introduction of AFSPA sounds more plausible.