Last fortnight saw Manipur graduate to a new level, or should we say descend to a new depth of chaos. Two Improvised Explosive Devices, IED, planted by unknown persons went off at a site of Durga Puja celebration during the height of Puja celebrations, and then on the day of Eid, at an important site of this important festival of the Muslim faith. Although, there have been attacks at religious sites before, such as the bomb blasts some years ago at the ISCKON temple on the Airport Road, the current spate of mayhem seems to be marked by a new method in the madness. Given the circumstances and timings of these atrocious acts of violence by unknown assailants, it would not be entirely unreasonable to imagine these were by-products, intended or otherwise, of the growing and alarmingly widespread venom against what is perceived as a threat of a radical shift in demographic balance in the State in favour of a continually expanding population of immigrants.
This apprehension is not altogether baseless, and indeed we have argued on numerous occasions why this is so and proposed remedial measures. However, whatever the end may be, it cannot justify any and every means used to achieve it. On this matter, there is nobody to learn from than the man referred to as the father of the Indian nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Recall the Chauri Chaura incident of February 5, 1922, which all of us read about in high school. Outraged by the Rawlatt Act of 1919, an early antecedent of the familiar modern version, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA 1958, the protest against which led to the infamous Jhalianwalla Massacre, Gandhi launched the Civil Disobedience Movement. Unlike physical and militant protests to which the mighty British Empire had a ready and overwhelming answer, Gandhi`™s innovative agitation of non-cooperation left the British virtually powerless. This was to the pleasant and gleeful surprise of leaders of the Independence struggle in its formative stages, including Nehru, Patel, Maulana Azad, and indeed Jinnah. Their scepticism of Gandhi`™s methods would change to admiration, at least at the time. But then the Chauri Chaura incident happened, in which, during a demonstration, a crowd got violent and attacked a police station, killing 23 policemen and three civilians. To the utter dismay of Nehru and others who thought the British were cornered, Gandhi called off his Civil Disobedience Movement saying India was still not prepared for such a movement. With the benefit of hindsight, it would soon be seen his intuition that the British could match violence for violence, and no violent agitation against them would bear fruit, was dead on target. In the aftermath of the incident, the British did crack down brutally on the agitators, imprisoning many, sentencing 172 to death, six more dying in police custody.
To reiterate the point again, the recent spate of IED blasts, even if they are perpetrated independently of any organised movement and therefore devoid of any ideology, because of their timing and circumstance, can have the effect of delegitimizing the perfectly legitimate demand for the introduction of the Inner Line Permit System, or an equivalent law. This being the case, these attacks could equally be acts in support of, or else acts meant to sabotage the movement for bringing in a new law that would address the legitimate apprehension of the local communities in the State of being ultimately marginalised demographically in their own State. In any case, even if the situation were to be assessed independently of the larger political movement and its strategies, the contention that the end does not justify unconditional means still would hold. Planting bombs at public places, will find no justification under any law or humanitarian norms anywhere in the world. These acts are thoroughly condemnable, and whoever is responsible must stop at once. The government must also take all precautions so that public security is not compromised any further.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam