If we have done wrong let us apologize
The Nagaland police personnel are once again under scrutiny for an alleged incident which took place along National Highway 39 near Golaghat, Assam. According to reports about 1500 protesters belonging to the All Assam Students Union (AASU), various local organisations and women units had on September 15 staged a road blockade on NH 39 to protest against lack of security in the Assam-Nagaland border areas. As the protesters were agitating a convoy of five cars belonging to Nagaland police arrived at the spot and opened fire and assaulted them when they were stopped. In the firing and assault 22 persons were injured and admitted to different hospitals. While the media report appears to be a little over exaggerated nevertheless something did happen. And our so called brave but hasty jawans are at it again, displaying their prowess against anyone or anything that come their way. While the Assam Chief Minister has ordered an inquiry into the firing and assault, on the Nagaland side a senior police officer was quoted in the media denying that the students had been physically assaulted and instead claimed that the police were compelled to disperse the students since the convoy was proceeding to Kohima for security duty in view of the visit of Vice-President Hamid Ansari. Defending the role of the Naga personnel, the police officer even accused the (Assam) students of hurling stones at the jawans and breaking the windshield of the vehicles. It was also pointed out that a convoy of BSF coming from Dimapur was allowed to pass but the Naga jawans were not allowed to move, thereby compelling the personnel to disperse the agitating students from the road.
What we can make out is that in any incident, there is always going to be two sides to the story. Human nature is that even if one side is at fault, people would not admit it. Instead excuses will be made. All this shows that we lack honesty in our every day affairs. The truth is never established. Whether the separate probe ordered by the Assam and Nagaland government will correctly establish what happened is something that we will have to wait and watch. The point that however needs the attention and concern of the Naga people is this: We can no longer ride roughshod over other people’s sentiment or feelings. Nagas should realize that we are not living alone in isolation. We are not even independent or self sufficient that we should consider ourselves as though we have the world at our feet. This is absolutely wrong. In fact we are dependent on others as well. If tomorrow our neighbor decides to teach us a lesson, it can be quite hard on the Nagas. Economic blockade is not the sole preserve of the Nagas. Others can also impose it on us. One of the problems for us seems to be our image. Our neighbors seem to have a negative feeling about Nagas in general whether it is the Meiteis or the Assamese. While we also have our rights and history nevertheless we should also reflect from within and see where our fault lies. Remember that our action whether they are good or bad will speak louder than words. We need to admit that our hasty behavior has sometimes hurt the ‘other side’ and more often than not created more problems for us internally as well. And if at all our police jawans have assaulted certain section of our neighbors, we need to also apologize and assuage their hurt feelings. Most times we have this habit of doing things without looking at the consequences of our actions. Nagas need to be more careful not to hurt other peoples. We cannot live and do only as we like as though the world belongs to us.
