Soliloquy

I woke up yesterday to a news report from the Hindustan Times proclaiming that footballer Chinglensana Singh‘s house was torched and vandalised in the ongoing riots in Churachandpur, Manipur. 

The report claimed that the 50-year-old structure was destroyed by Kuki extremists in the ongoing Kuki-Meitei riots in the northeastern state. Singh, who lives in Hyderabad, rushed immediately to his hometown and managed to move his family to his uncle’s house in Moirang, where the family has now taken refuge. 

Such riots make me feel deeply pained and unconfident about the future of a country that flatters to have built itself on plurality. Sure, the Kukis might have reasonable grounds to feel exacerbated by the Meiteis’ requests for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, but there can be no rationale behind plunder and arson. 

There are constitutional procedures laid down by the judiciary to address such assertions, and those of our countrymen who are unlettered need to be apprised about such recourses.

Instead, politicians thrive upon deepening the divides in our society during such crises. This makes me believe firmly in the fact that most riots are politically-induced and the discontent of the people in question only a facade to our politician friends’ deeper, and often appalling solipsistic interests.

My heart goes out to Chinglensana and his family as well as all those who have been affected by the civic unrest in Manipur. The army has gone about its business briskly, and one expects the troubles to die down in some time.

Until then, all we can do is hope that man derives some understanding from not killing his fellow man. We risk witnessing the unmaking of a country that prides itself on its plurality thanks to the rampant intolerance that our political masters feed upon us.

You can read the aforementioned news report from the Hindustan Times here. Another piece, by the same publication, which throws further light into the issue can be accessed here.