Who Owns Manipur?

By T. Gouzadou

Love of money begets corruption which ruins the people. Manipur's statehood is now more than 30 years old. With the passage of time the Government has become weaker, gradually resulting in deterioration of law and order. There is no faithfulness or love in Manipur, our native land, and we do not acknowledge God. We make promises and break them. We lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. Crimes increases. There is one murder after another. Government is no longer able to even pay salaries to government servants regularly.Rishang Keishing, MP and former Chief Minister has rightly said, "No Chief Minister of the past and the present have lived up to the people’s expectation. Instead, all of them have built houses in New Delhi, Calcutta etc." The words quoted above reveal that the main target of our politicians of the past and the present is to become MLAs and Ministers by any means to enable them to amass wealth at the cost of the people whom they represent because they do not consider Manipur as their own.

Legislators are lawmakers but the performances of our legislators prove that they are lawbreakers as well. Due to their failure to enforce rule of law and impartial administration they have to bow to underground organization from time to time. In a family, eating by one member does not fill the stomach of another. In like manner, the wealth amassed by politicians and Government employees through corruption cannot develop Manipur. Anyone who takes bribe is an enemy of the society and such corrupt person is worse than a drug addict.Before Independence, the Indian Civil Service (ICS) was called the steel frame of the British Empire and the best bureaucracy in the world. It is said that the ICS officers had no interest in making money for themselves and they were content with their pay. It was their incorruptibility which had enabled the British nation to build the British Empire where the sun never sets. We have to imitate the noble qualities of the British to save Manipur.When Rajagopalachari, the first and the last Indian Governor-General of India (1948-50), succeeded Mountbatten the latter said to his Indian successor that he did not think that East and West Pakistan would remain united for 25 years. Rajaji agreed. As predicted, within 25 years of Pakistan Independence, the East Pakistan became Bangladesh on December 15, 1971. This had happened because the people of West Pakistan could not consider the people of East Pakistan as their own people. We must learn from the mistakes of the people of West Pakistan.Hospitals, dispensaries, schools, colleges, offices of different departments show that the number of Government employees who work honestly with missionary zeal is too small. There is no longer a bus service on Tipaimukh Road from Churachandpur to Tipaimukh. Government schools located in the interior villages are no longer schools in the true sense of the word. Development schemes appear to have been kept in abeyance. Instead of trying to improve the present state of affairs, the political classes are crying for Sixth Schedule or UT for hill areas of Manipur. Unless the people improve their moral quality, Sixth Schedule or UT, if granted, will bring greater misery to the people.A few centuries ago, Negroes were slaves of the white people in the United States. Negroes are no longer slaves, and they consider the America as their homeland. In like manner, it will be a wise policy for us to extend full co-operation to the Government and consider Manipur as our homeland instead of fighting the Government for independence. God has given Manipur for all of us who live in Manipur, and He can disown us if we do not want to amend our mentality. The word ‘Manipuri’ means inhabitants of Manipur. What holds a society together is not force or even laws but moral persuasion? Love is the only means for our unity. If we hate one another and if we cannot consider Manipur as our own, how can we maintain emotional and territorial integrity of Manipur?A patriot is a person who loves his country. Mother India wants us to be patriots. A patriot must earn his livelihood by honest means, he must content with his pay, he must be loyal to his profession, and he must be a loyal citizen.Duties towards State authorities as written in the Holy Bible are reproduced below for compliance: "Everyone must obey State authorities, because no authority exists without God’s permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God. Whoever opposes the existing authority opposes what God has ordered; and anyone who does so will bring judgment on himself. For rulers are not to be feared by those who do good but by those who do evil. Would you like to be unafraid of the man in authority? Then do what is good, and he will praise you, because he is God’s servant working for your good. But if you do evil, then be afraid of him, because his power to punish you is real. He is God’s servant and carries out God’s punishment on those who do evil. For this reason you must obey the authorities – not just because of God’s punishment, but also as a matter of conscience" (Romans 13:1-5). Let us worship God in loving Manipur and the people of Manipur.