It is nearly two days to go that the clock hits the new hour of a brand new year. So many non-vegetable foods and huge quantities of liquors will be served, eaten and wasted on the last day of this year. Moreover, so many songs will be sung and all kinds of moves will be danced away all through the midnight of December 31. Maximum of the people will talk about their lives, interest and society. And of course, the main thing people would point out in every talk is ‘change’, as if people are sick and tired of same old story in their lives. However, there is something that everyone wants to retain forever and that is ‘heroism’. People love to be indomitability, though it is hard to explain how many are actually bold. Ultimately, every person lusts to be a hero in their lives and the consequences are sometimes too awful that they badly affect the society as a whole. In fact, nothing tends to heroism but everything implies to supremacy.
Nowadays, the sense of supremacy is in every single person, irrespective of all kinds of professions. The smartness to become supreme is more often turned into a harsh attitude. Highly qualified people are more to be counted in the category. For example, doctors in government hospitals look down to the patients who are dressed slightly untidy and bad in communication, and the same thing happens in most of the government offices, banks, shops and other places. Out of all the people, the topmost wannabe heroes are police personnel. From the lowest ranks to the highest officers, police personnel are the ones who walk, sit and talk with a tone of supremacy. It is alright to be commanding as the profession itself demands the attitude, however the nature of conquering everyone sounds not at all passable. It badly affects the normal lives of other people. There had been many incidents in Manipur too, in which public are harassed by police or security personnel. Even media persons had been the victims. The most recent incident would be allegedly beating up of a person who came to file a report just because he tried to correct his surname while the police official was writing the report.
While seeking power, the dream job of most of the youths of the state is to become police officer. In olden times, graduates study hard to crack civil service examinations to serve the society, however, today’s youths do the same to rule the society. It seems like every youths have the corrupted version of Latin phrase ‘Veni vidi vici’ (I came, I saw, I conquered) in their heads. The critical thing is, people do not earn respect anymore but they demand it or otherwise snatch it, which they get it officially by joining police force. For instance, a school principal is less respected when compared to a police officer. In traffic jam, even the lowest ranked police officials honk in a way that the road is only meant for them. To be precise, the scenario has become in such a way that if a family has a police personnel among its members, there is nothing to be worry about. The policeman becomes the hero of the family with a feeling that no one would dare to harm anything. The unsolvable problem in the state is the way people compete each other in terms of supremacy for no reason. Right or wrong is out of context when a person with a government issued gun plays the protagonist. Three decades ago, there used to be policemen on the streets with sticks, however to terminate the issue of insurgency in the state, sticks had been drastically replaced by guns. Hardly any other places of world would have the large number of armed security or police personnel like Manipur has. Now insurgency is almost gone but the state is crowded with armed security personnel. The state is transitioning but also left out with more guns, with every person in a race to become strong and rich. In climbing the ladder of supremacy, an extreme harsh environment is building up and eventually Manipur might be in big trouble after another three decades down the line.
Leader Writer: Khogen Khoibam
Source: Imphal Free Press
