You can lead a horse to water but can’t make it drink. You can talk and discuss relentlessly on racism but it is next to impossible to cure mainlanders from the chronic disease of racism. In India, the land of gobber and achaar, racism is never ever a personal experience. It runs deep in the vein of each one of us YES I repeat each one of us. Racism is a systematic practice in Indian society that does not exclude any community, region or state. Let us not be surprised to find out that North Indians are racial to South Indians and vice versa. Racism on grounds of look and skin-colour, and racism on grounds of ethnicity are consistently prevailed across the country. If we broadly study on racism as a wide chapter, we will come across many funny observations. To cite a few, most Indian pop icons have light-near- white skin. Most of the Indian stars and celebrities promote skin-bleaching creams that promise to improve one’s look. Even the matrimonial ads stress on fairness as one additional quality for a to-be bride. Need we be surprised about the general mindset of mainland Indians then? Even we Manipuris are prone to address North Indians as mayaangs and we even tease a black skinned girl or boy at our very leikai as ‘Negro tombi or tomba’. It begins right there. We are equally infected by racism. So, it’s better to keep aside this topic for the time being and focus on a more serious problem perhaps a more boring issue than racism?
Let me begin with quite a simple and relevant example from our day to day lives. When there is a fight among kids at a locality, their parents intervene, scold/console them and settle things. Let us (citizens of Manipur) put ourselves in the shoes of those kids and consider the political leaders as our parents. Where do we stand? I suppose we stand nowhere. We are impoverished and the neglected lots. Need I cite one more example on how our political leaders are so ruthlessly reckless? No beating the bush let me come to the straight point. Guess what? It took him (no wild guess on who is this ‘him’) more than two weeks to probe into the matter of the dead of Richard Loitam. By the time he was partially involved in the cause, the rituals were over and the issue had already gained momentum with thousands of people supporting it across the country. I am afraid whether he was even aware about the news of Richard’s death, I am afraid if he is least bothered about this issue. I am quite ashamed to admit that (starting from our CM) most of our political leaders are so callously irresponsible in many matters of social or political issues though they are too responsible in financial matters. Forget the ruling party; even the opposition party hasn’t played its part. Sometimes, I wonder if I should insinuate the opposition party to raise many issues that could be strong political tools for them to accuse the ruling party. None of my business I know so forget it.
Whatsoever, I seriously OBJECT the lack of sensibility and responsibility among most of the political leaders in our state. And I consider it a much grave situation that racism. Power is addictive to them. They are more treacherous than drug addicts when it comes to power. Their lives are powerfully smooth and hassle free; there isn’t a single room for any kind of problem in their lives. Everything is picture perfect for them …really? I not only despise but pity them too. They have power, they have money so what? Money and power can never buy peace of mind. Trust me; they will forever be alien to mental solace when they become old and feeble. God bless them!
No citizen wants to decry, no citizen wants to fetch complains on Governance but as far as Manipur is concerned are we left with any other choice? Why do we never avail of the chance to adore our own Chief Minister or any of the political parties? Why do we always succumb to their dirty political tricks? Why we are not governed but ruled? Many questions perturb me from time to time and I am tired of finding the answers myself. I seriously find racism a minute issue as compared to the deep rooted problems our society has been facing for all these decades.
Well, with or without the support of our (not at all) adorable political leaders, the campaign for Justice for Richard is making news across the country. And it is also worth to note that a verdict which time has come to be passed cannot be put on halt. This time, it is a strong conviction among us irrespective of which community we belong, which faith we follow. We have been united like never before. But as I humbly requested earlier, let us not restrict the issue of our dear brother Richard to racism alone. From my perspective, the problem is not just racism in our society. It is something graver than racism. This is not the right time to point fingers at mainlanders. Before accusing them of racism, let us first sort out our domestic problem which to me is a more gruesome and disheartening. By and by, let us fight for this cause till JUSTICE is sought!
Let me begin with quite a simple and relevant example from our day to day lives. When there is a fight among kids at a locality, their parents intervene, scold/console them and settle things. Let us (citizens of Manipur) put ourselves in the shoes of those kids and consider the political leaders as our parents. Where do we stand? I suppose we stand nowhere. We are impoverished and the neglected lots. Need I cite one more example on how our political leaders are so ruthlessly reckless? No beating the bush let me come to the straight point. Guess what? It took him (no wild guess on who is this ‘him’) more than two weeks to probe into the matter of the dead of Richard Loitam. By the time he was partially involved in the cause, the rituals were over and the issue had already gained momentum with thousands of people supporting it across the country. I am afraid whether he was even aware about the news of Richard’s death, I am afraid if he is least bothered about this issue. I am quite ashamed to admit that (starting from our CM) most of our political leaders are so callously irresponsible in many matters of social or political issues though they are too responsible in financial matters. Forget the ruling party; even the opposition party hasn’t played its part. Sometimes, I wonder if I should insinuate the opposition party to raise many issues that could be strong political tools for them to accuse the ruling party. None of my business I know so forget it.
Whatsoever, I seriously OBJECT the lack of sensibility and responsibility among most of the political leaders in our state. And I consider it a much grave situation that racism. Power is addictive to them. They are more treacherous than drug addicts when it comes to power. Their lives are powerfully smooth and hassle free; there isn’t a single room for any kind of problem in their lives. Everything is picture perfect for them …really? I not only despise but pity them too. They have power, they have money so what? Money and power can never buy peace of mind. Trust me; they will forever be alien to mental solace when they become old and feeble. God bless them!
No citizen wants to decry, no citizen wants to fetch complains on Governance but as far as Manipur is concerned are we left with any other choice? Why do we never avail of the chance to adore our own Chief Minister or any of the political parties? Why do we always succumb to their dirty political tricks? Why we are not governed but ruled? Many questions perturb me from time to time and I am tired of finding the answers myself. I seriously find racism a minute issue as compared to the deep rooted problems our society has been facing for all these decades.
Well, with or without the support of our (not at all) adorable political leaders, the campaign for Justice for Richard is making news across the country. And it is also worth to note that a verdict which time has come to be passed cannot be put on halt. This time, it is a strong conviction among us irrespective of which community we belong, which faith we follow. We have been united like never before. But as I humbly requested earlier, let us not restrict the issue of our dear brother Richard to racism alone. From my perspective, the problem is not just racism in our society. It is something graver than racism. This is not the right time to point fingers at mainlanders. Before accusing them of racism, let us first sort out our domestic problem which to me is a more gruesome and disheartening. By and by, let us fight for this cause till JUSTICE is sought!
This appeared on 6 May 2012
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