All petrol pumps in Imphal are firmly shut. They look like forlorn relics in a ghost town. But on the road outside these once-bustling outlets sit rows of women with bottles of various shapes and sizes. They contain petrol or kerosene; diesel is completely out of stock. Petrol is currently selling at Rs 90 a litre, a dramatically reduced price compared to Rs 150 a couple of weeks ago. LPG cylinders, if and when available in the black market away from public areas, sell at Rs 1,500 — down from Rs 2,200 at the peak of scarcity. Food items are no less costly, with rice, the people’s staple, priced at Rs 27 a kg, more than double its normal rate. “When you organised a Bharat Bandh to protest against the hike in fuel prices, we could only laugh. The Rs 53 for a litre of petrol that you pay in Delhi is only of nostalgia value here,” a Manipuri journalist told me.
How do people make both ends meet when prices compare to Zimbabwe, which endured 4,400 per cent inflation some years back? Manipuris, resigned to their fate and pessimistic about matters improving, just grin and bear it — at least on the surface. But beneath the impassive exterior lies a grim, almost sinister, reality. My inquiries revealed that most middle class families follow a simple strategy: They depute members into diverse professions, pool in the resources and lead a reasonable existence. It is not uncommon to find the youngest son of a family enrolled in a terrorist outfit, which indulges in extortion and loot. Another male member becomes a contractor. In cahoots with politicians and officials, he siphons off development funds meant for improving the infrastructure. But some members of the family lead perfectly respectable lives as junior functionaries in Government establishments or teachers in schools and colleges.
I read that last week a crude petrol bomb exploded in a busy commercial area in the heart of Imphal. The next day, shops and establishments in the vicinity received a threat letter from the ‘commander’ of a new militant outfit demanding a hefty sum as protection money. None had heard the commander’s name earlier and doubted if his so-called organisation existed. But some interlocutors said that the signatory to the letter was certain to pick up a couple of lakh rupees because not paying up could invite targeted attacks. With this ‘seed money’, the commander would probably go on to actually recruit a handful of associates and emerge as yet another ‘recognised’ terror outfit. On present count, the number of militant organisations, spanning Naga, Kuki, Meitei and other Manipuri groups, is estimated at between 40 and 52. Incidentally, Manipur’s population is merely 25 lakh, one-fifth of Delhi’s!
Dr Mahendra Singh, CMO of Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, narrated his institution’s pathetic tale in my hotel room. Ever since the 67-day blockade of the main highway connecting Manipur to the rest of India by Naga students’ organisations (lifted barely 10 days ago), the hospital has run out of essential drugs. Although some medicines are periodically airlifted, supplies of bulk material are yet to be restored. The onset of the monsoon and consequent water-logging has provided mosquitoes with perfect breeding sites. In the last fortnight, six persons died of Japanese encephalitis, and over a hundred are feared infected. “To prevent encephalitis assuming epidemic proportions it is essential to do methadone fogging, which used to be carried out this time every year. The drug has to be mixed in the ratio of 1:9 with diesel before being sprayed. Since there is no diesel, we can’t undertake this,” he pointed out.
Similarly, RIMS has shut down the State’s only MRI facility because helium, which is needed to run the imaging machine, is almost over. “It has to be topped up every year. But trucks are not running and so the gas, which is brought from Mumbai, has virtually run out. I shut the machine down because operating it with a very low reserve of helium will damage the costly equipment and we will never get a replacement,” he ruefully admitted.
I had never experienced or heared such abysmal negligence and callous indifference towards people’s suffering on the part of the Indian state and the political establishment. New Delhi allowed the Naga students’ blockade to continue for over two months, while the Congress-led State Government was too busy aggrandising and appropriating vast Central funds for private pockets. The media, hyperactive in Jammu & Kashmir offering gratuitous suggestions for appeasement of pro-Pakistan separatists, disdainfully ignored Manipur’s pain. Even now, the situation is viewed with cynicism because everybody seems convinced things can never improve.
Manipur is the forgotten eastern outpost of a country that prides itself on democracy and the rule of law. How many of us even know that there are only two highways linking the State to the rest of India? How many bother to find out that the shorter and reasonably well-maintained NH 39, connecting Imphal to Guwahati, passes through Dimapur in Nagaland and was effortlessly blocked by Naga students protesting the Government’s last-minute denial of permission to Mr T Muivah, chief of NSCN(I-M), to visit his home village in the Naga-dominated Ukhrul district of Manipur? At least I didn’t know that the only other road link to Manipur, NH 53, goes via Silchar in Assam, is 300 km longer than NH 39, was described by a globe-trotting Japanese driving enthusiast as the “worst road in the world”, and takes 60 hours to cover a distance that should be done in six.
With trucks still refusing to run on NH 39, fearing more extortion and also because they have not been compensated for their losses during the blockade, the only alternative is to improve the condition of NH 53. Last Friday I learnt that the Truckers’ Association had despatched 80 lorries laden with stones and some labourers to repair the most seriously damaged portions of NH 53, without waiting any longer for the Government to intervene. Can there be a more telling example of the supreme unconcern of the Indian Establishment towards people’s suffering?
The Indian state can sometimes be more insensitive that tin-pot dictatorships of African countries. By treating the problems in Manipur as a pure law and order issue, fuelled by ethnic rivalries, the authorities have blindfolded themselves to the appalling reality of India’s abandoned State. Ironically, those who cry themselves hoarse over alleged human rights violations by the state against Kashmiri terrorists and Maoist predators have no time for the wanton violation of the Manipuris’ basic human right to live with dignity.
The problem of manipur is not only confined to its boundries but prevalent in almost in whole north east differing in intensity only. However i didn't expect any firm and really good step in this matter as they are involved in much more serious and country saving issues like the fake encounter case of "his highness Sohrabbuddin "and allied glorious criminals who were real patriot of this country, the uncontrollable Inflation and mindit it is beacause of the international causes our government has nothing to do with it etc etc etc the list is more lengthy but these two are important and much relevent this time.
Gandhi ji once said to British that leave us on our god and we still left on the god. Now only God will save us as we are very peaceful , dumb and mind about our own business type Great Indians , Glorifying the history of being ruled rather than rule.
No comments:
Post a Comment