HEARTLESSNESS AT ITS BARBARIC WORST 

Kajal Chaterjee

It has been said that the whole country has been insulted and 140 crore countrymen are feeling ashamed on the incident of disrobing parading 2 Kuki women in Manipur with one of them subjected to gangrape! 

 

There lies no doubt that the sane sensitive section among the countrymen are feeling insulted not only for this gruesome incident, but also for the unabated violence in Manipur since early May; but ashamed should be one and only the perpetrators of the brutalities and the Who's Who of the much hyped "double-engine government" who are callous enough for failing to tame the mayhem continuing for months. 

 

 Do the responsibility of the Central figures start and end with appeals only as was being demanded from many quarters since long! Rather we should talk practical and demand accountability from the persons who really matter. We must ask whether the affairs of Manipur form the sole responsibility of only the state government with the role of the Central figures confined to mere appeals only!  Moreover is Manipur a "sovereign country" of it's own that the Indian government is expected to limit itself to appeals for peace only as being done in respect of Russian aggression in Ukraine! Rather Manipur is merely a province of the Indian Union and so the main/final responsibility for ending violence in Manipur rests with the Indian government only through it's organ of Home ministry! Let the zealous slogan of "INDIA FIRST" translate from bankrupt rhetoric to practical reality. 

 

 If the Indian State is powerful enough to unilaterally dilute the special provisions that the Constitution guaranteed to the province of Jammu & Kashmir, divide it into two parts with both been demoted to Union territories; why doesn't it exercise the same "valiance" and authority for better cause ie protecting innocent Manipuris from the  devastating internal arson! 

 

Why shouldn't the Union Home ministry be made accountable for the fatal fire continuing in Manipur since early May! 

If an instant few-hour carnage in Bogtui, Birbhum district killing around 10 persons had "merited" demand of resignation of West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, dismissal of the TMC government with West Bengal being a "fit case" for imposition of the President's Rule; then by which logic should the same demand be not applicable for Imphal and New Delhi as well for utmost failure in protecting citizens of an integral part of the country from the fire of months-long violence, murder of hundreds and displacement of hundreds of thousands! After all the buck stops at the doorstep of Government of India only, Manipur is part of which! 

 

When condemnation of the gruesome assault upon the two women should have been without any sort of ifs and buts along with expression of apology for failing to end months long violence in an integral part of India, how bizarrely can the issue be diluted by generalising the barbarity through invocation of stray crimes in "carefully selected" states - - Congress-ruled Rajasthan and Chattisgarh! Why doesn't Uttar Pradesh get invoked as well scarred by spine-chilling atrocities upon Dalit girls in Hathras Budayun Unnao to name a few! Why doesn't Gujarat get invoked where convicted gang rapists cum murderers have been allowed to walk free only after offering them garlands and sweets! Had "Hypocrisy" been a living entity, he/she would have been frantically searching for places to hide on witnessing how shamelessly can such a horrendous assault on those 2 Kuki women be also be exploited to play dirty politics!