Aaron Keishing “I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.” - Mother Teresa Peaceful solution need not be impossible. Any conflict can be solved without resorting to violence. People resort to violence because they think it is impossible to solve the issues in peaceful manner, and/or peaceful co-existence is impracticable and/or unreal. “But that is dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that communal riot or war is inevitable, that mankind is doomed, that we are gripped by forces we cannot control. We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade; therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable, and we believe they can do it again,” (President, John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963). Strikes, bandhs and blockades should be banned permanently or kept as a last option, when all attempts to negotiate have failed. Moshe Dayan said, “If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.” But people fear negotiations as much as they fear peace. People have begun to believe that it is useless to speak of peaceful co-existence between communities; it is useless to speak of Manipur peace. Yes, it will be useless until the rigid and one sided leaders of the communities adopt a more enlightened attitude. Peace loving people are supposed to be racially neutral, but to do so is extremely dangerous; we will be suspected by both sides. But if we don’t do it, if we completely align ourselves with one side or the other, we will lose our chance to work for peace. To work for peace and/or reconciliation is to understand both sides. Doing only that will be a great help for peace. Sadly, people of the State of Manipur have completely identified with one side, one ideology, which is the root cause of communal strife. We, as individuals and as a community, must re-examine our own attitude towards the possibilities of peace, towards other communities, for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every sensible person of Manipur who despairs of communal strife and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward, by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace. Social Medias can be used for exchanging peace, because peace is life itself. Ironically, Facebook and Whatsup have become the tools to promote enmity between communities, and to circulate rumors, and to spread wanton provocative statements, with intent to cause riot. Even newspapers are turning as mediums to exchange threats between the so called welfare civil organisations. Today, writing peace is more dangerous than writing strife. People are happier to help for the cause of destruction, mass brawl, and communal strife than for peace, and seem to have no curiosity to question why they chose to brawl. Was there any better strategy? How long shall we keep on fighting? Will fighting truly end injustice, or fighting itself is injustice? Will blockade/counter blockade really bring fair solution, or blockade/ counter blockade itself is unfair? It is very easy, in this state of affairs, to incite and inflame the two groups of people against one another, to spread fears and to instill new hatreds on top of those that already exist. We cannot change the ugly situation between communities by fighting, and fighting and fighting. “You never change anything by fighting the existing. To change something, build a new model and make the existing obsolete,” said Buckminster Fuller. Economic blockade, bandh and strike must go, make them obsolete; we have to invent new methods of agitation. Blockade, bandh and strike must not be the best modes of submitting grievances or agitation. We must stop illegal mode of agitations, for laws and agitations must go hand in hand. If the communities of Manipur wish to have a prolonged and indefinite period of peaceful co-existence and economic prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another. To err is human, but no group, leader or individual shall be a persistent offender. And enmities between communities, as between individuals, shall not last forever. A nation State is not built by following a negative path. We should not pursue solution by adopting illegal means. It is not enough to say we must not pursue violence. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of communal strife but on the positive affirmation of peace. Peace is far superior to the violence; legal means are far superior to illegal means. We must transform from negative blockade, bandh and strike race, in which no one is secure, gain and/or no one can win, to a positive contest to harness humanity’s creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all the communities of the State of Manipur. We must shift the bandhs race into a peace race, a race for building a safer place to live. “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. Let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace, in the hearts and minds of all our people. My humble appeal to UNC and State Government to settle the ongoing issues at the earliest and restore normalcy in the State, before it is too late.
