Come September, the people are once more ready to pay tribute to our pioneer leader Hijam Irabot. A classless society with the proletariat at the forefront was the dreamt of our great Leader Hijam Irabot. For the cause, the leader had waged a political war against the British colonial rule and then later against the feudalistic nature of the Maharajah and the ruling capitalist class of Manipur. What makes it different from this pioneer leader and the so-called leaders of our days is that he was not lured by the prospect of the royal prerogatives and official facilities including the prestigious post of membership to the Sardar Panchayat Court that was being offered to him for having married princess Khomdonsana.
To Hijam Irabot, the war was not only against the external force which had colonized the nation-state but it was rather against all forms of oppression and suppression committed under the feudalistic character of the system. He dreamt of a nation where every citizen has the right to live with dignity. His work for the promotion of culture, sports, literature, and journalism is a reflection of his love towards this erstwhile nation state.
All his life the great leader had worked for the cause of the people sacrificing every comfort of life. To convert the dreamt into reality he spearheaded various political movements starting from the grass hood level. He was the man behind the formation of the students’ federation, peasant union, women’s organization, and progressive party.
For his active role to bring about a reformed state, he was sent to prison many a time during the British colonial era. Later after the British left the nation state, Hijam Irabot was once again declared as a terrorist as his activities continued to be a threat to the Maharajah himself as well as the ruling capitalist.
In recognition of the activities of this all-time leader, the state is celebrating his Birth Anniversary across the state. A political party – the Communist Party of India (CPI) is taking the main initiative in organizing the day to commemorate the leader’s birthday.
But one thing we in the Imphal Times would like to remind is that, would the person who had sacrificed every comfort of life would be happy to see us celebrating the day without fulfilling any of his dreams. Will our leader be happy if he sees the conditions of the peasant community or the working class people of this state? It is an open secret for each and one of us that government posts are being bought with money, Fertilizers which are meant to be distributed to the farmers are being traded by some pseudo social workers for their own benefit; many people are driven out from their homestead in the name of development.
This is the state of our state. There is no doubt that our great leader Hijam Irabot would certainly shed tears in heaven seeing the reality.