Let’s not be ignorant about the Nort Eastern Insurgencies that have been taking place around for decades. The North Eastern Part of India, has for the most time in history been ignored or rather isolated by the Central Government. When we question the isolations many explanation’s come upon stating the Geography, History, Culture, Ideology and so on and so forth.
Now, If you are not aware of the Insurgencies, its just a click away. Google “insurgency in north east India” and I assure you, you will be surprised on the mass data and research done. It was surprising to me that such insurgency that has happened and continue to happen are yet so unknown to people and so scarcely discussed among the people. That includes me too.
Now coming to the ongoing Manipur crisis. The Media, They just portrait all as “Black and White”, now to ones understanding, or the people who aren’t directly affected by it become victims and consumer of the propaganda established by the few influential personalities. People need to understand that no conflict is just black and white, if it was the solution would also be as simple as the conflict sounds.
Most of the news channels have quite one-sided perspective, which may not be problematic to the them, but it would be to the audiences within the region and outside the region. I believe that most of conflicts and insurgencies that have and are taking place can only be understood when the stakeholders of the conflict are asked about their perspective and what they demand as an action.
While I was doing my research, they conclude it as just two- three parties involvement which starts with disagreements, protests and then the transformation to a violent movement, now their may be some reality to that, but the question is, Why has the government always been glorified or shown as the peace maker. If that’s the situation, there shouldn’t have been openly available data online showcasing numbers of Incident, Civilians Killed, Arms Recovered –Surrendered and People kidnapped?
Doesn’t sound convincing does it? Now rather than showcasing it as extremist Vs Government, let’s understand that for the same reasons that North Eastern States have always been ignored – Geography, History, Culture, Ideology and so on and so forth, should be the path for the beginning of the resolution of the problem.
As of now, I see the situation only in 3 possible ways. One possibility is that people rely on extreme measure just because they are done being the unheard and the oppressed. Which I ethically don’t support it. Second possibility is that the interests of both the parties are conflicting among one another, which has possibly been addressed many times, but remains stagnated due to the structure or rather the lack of accountability and initiative of the government in power, and lastly the possibility which seems more appealing to me, is the idea of misinformation, propaganda or even escalation of violence by attacking identities of individuals and showcasing a sense of threat to their livelihood.
The Manipur crisis is a complex conflict between religion, tribe, interest of government, Non- state actors, stake holders, culture and history. Now, the idea of Internet Shutdown and Shoot-at-Sight are two extreme measures to control the unrest. We have repeatedly seen the same measure in history both in India and Abroad, which have clearly show the failure of such measures. These measures constrains the oppressed and denies the basic right of individuals to practice speech. misinformation is one of the main causes of the crisis and the use discussion, information and the basic right of speech is the solution to the misinformation.
Nobody is questioning the big media, nor the government of how democratic or how exactly have they came up with such extreme measures? Nobody questions how such measures will solve the crisis or bring upon the protection and the upbringing of the ones affected by the crisis?
The same government that preaches about being the largest democracy, the government of the people and for the people, are the ones who impose such extreme measures and captivate their own people (both physically and ideologically)and stating rather than justifying that this is the solution. On the grounds the reality can be seen, its quite the opposite, it doesn’t stop the conflict or the crisis rather it stops the discussion and circulation of the matter, and later sliding it down as it never happened, until the next election happens.
So let’s start taking more about about, lets start discussion and let’s find solutions. North Eastern States cannot be called as a conflict zones ,not in the past , not now and never in the future. Lets make it a zone of discussion and resolution.