The chief minister, O Ibobi`™s appeal for all to give their mite towards ushering in peace in the state so that development can pick up momentum is now familiar rhetoric. So many others have said these same words before him too. There can be no doubt that the interrelationship between peace and development is a typical example of the chicken and egg conundrum, however often forgotten here is that this prognosis is not all this simplistic and hence the prescriptions to it also have also never worked as they should have. This, it is arguable, is because there are a number of other factors that are acting as bottlenecks, if not roadblocks, in the way of both peace and development. One of these, not many will dispute, is the total absence of political legitimacy in the state, in spite of the fact that political stability is more or less have been ensured by the introduction of the Anti Defection Law. Unlike in the past when not many average citizens could remember how many times the state government had fallen in the past decade, today in the changed circumstance, the Ibobi ministry has lasted two and a half terms already, and is on way to completing three. Partly as a cost of the instable politics in the past, and partly because those in the vocation have not changed their ways, politics and politicians, though powerful, are still seen as unscrupulous and selfish by the people. In the face of this fall from grace of politics as such, there are still very few amongst the general public who would unhesitatingly vouch anything good can ever come out of politics. The damage this poisoning of the mind has done to the state, although intangible, has been far reaching. A detoxification of this public mindset must predicate any serious talk of peace or development. Only such an awakening can resolve the chicken and egg situation of peace and development that has today been reduced to a cliche. Neither peace nor development are likely ever to come within reach if politics in the land has not undergone such a moral cleansing.
We would like to remind our leaders that mere appeals for peace are nothing more than lip service. We would also like them to remember that when they appeal to others to allow peace to return, they are presuming their own innocence in the matter, as well as excluding their own responsibilities in setting right the things that have gone wrong. We can without hesitation say that all of us, big and small, weak and powerful, rich and poor, are intensely concerned about the issue. If at all there are differences, it is in the approach to a solution although in the end, all will have to acknowledge it is a common problem, needing a common solution. Which also incidentally means each and every one of us, not the least the politicians, will have to contribute our share in putting the peace train back on rail. This can be done by each of us pursuing our works and duties with honest conviction that what we do well and honestly is our way of contributing to peace, and consequently development. Looking at it another way, we see the chaos all around as a collective retribution for the crimes and sins we each of us have committed in the past, perhaps without even realising it or because our conscience have become blunted. The punishment then is equally a poetic justice for all. The rich, the powerful, the corrupt… as much as the average law abiding citizens who are too caught up with the routines of their everyday lives and made cowardly by the intimidating issues all around, to raise their voices and articulate honestly their minds. The latter especially should remember what Amartya Sen said in his The Argumentative Indian: `Silence is a powerful enemy of social justice.`
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam