By – Amar Yumnam
Imphal, Mar 18:
In my column of last week, I had concluded that “the inaction by the provincial government and the non-bothering by the Indian state to the Manipur social crisis mean in a big way the non-application of the standard Reasoning and Rationality capabilities of a state.”. By this I meant, in a common sense, that both the Manipur and the Central governments have invariably thought not to think of applying and thus not apply Reasoning and Rationality principles governments are supposed to possess– both the governments did not think of performing their responsibilities and they both opted for inaction when the people indulged in group-killing in a diverse society. The best example of this behavioural characteristic is how the India’s Foreign Minister responded in a Press Conference in Seoul last week: he was caught unawares all of a sudden and he responded only with a loose talk. This implies that the inter-ethnic killings in Manipur during the last one year have not even attracted a single discussion in the various meetings of the Union Cabinet of the Government of India – at the provincial level the Chief Minister attempts easily visible diversionary methods, and at the Indian level, the Central Government cares a hoot.
I had mentioned that this kind of behaviour of the government involves Moral issues: Is the Government – whether Manipur or the Union Government (MIND YOU, THIS IS UNION GOVERNMENT)- Moral in following a path of compromising Reasoning and Rationality principles while killings happen among the people within the boundary of the country? This demands collective application of mind by the people of the country.
It is exactly at this time after a year and when the Elections for the Indian Parliament are due that both the Governments – constituted by the same political party – are coming out with statements that political dialogues have been started. I feel that this is an absolutely painful statement. First, political dialogues have one characteristic which is not definitely for the people in a sharable way: Political Dialogues are mostly dialogues for Political Collusion mainly for personal benefits and hardly for all; this is more so during election times.
It has also just come out from the Ten Political Representatives of the Kuki side that there is yet to be any political dialogue whatsoever. Second, the Crisis has gone much beyond the Political level, and it has already attained a Social level. Let me give a real example here. Only three days back, I happened to overheard mentioning an ethnic group by a parent to only a three years old child in order to avoid moving to a little far-off mall. The child promptly responded that the group is not in Hyderabad and they are in Manipur only. This and the many other instances indicate for sure that the Manipur Crisis has already attained a Social Level in addition to the political one. In other words, the attempts for solution have to be a sustainable one and go much beyond Political.
These necessarily raise the question: Why is it that the Union and the Manipur Governments not only lack the usual Reasoning and Rationality Capability but Also Do Not Care for Morality? As Catherine Frost argues in Morality and Nationalism (2006): “[W]hile nationalism can focus on different objectives and concerns, one constant in nationalist argument is the role of a shared frame of reference as a representational resource. Frames of reference are important because they are a pre-condition for representation, both political and cultural….There are conditions that a national frame of reference should meet in order to serve a population. These conditions include relevance (a real frame of reference must reflect the real circumstances), currency(it must be revisable), and equal moral worth (it must respect individual members of the population).” As Kant emphasised long back: “Pure principles of right have objective reality…and people within a state as well as states in their relations with one another must act in accordance with those principles, regardless of what objections empirical politics may bring against them. True politics can therefore not take a step without having already paid homage with each other, morals cuts the knot that politics cannot untie.”
Well, we need the political leaders in both Manipur and Union Governments to follow the principles of Reasoning and Rationality. Above all, they need following the principle of Morality of respecting the Truth. Please do not bluff and ignore the people of Manipur.
