Tungshang Ningreichon
“You can fool some people sometime but you can’t fool all the people all the time” (Bob Marley).This aptly goes out for perpetrators who think that they will get away with anything and every offense they commit in the name of peoples movement. Most of us have grown up as victims of conflict, resisting and combating militarization as direct or indirect victims. The human rights violations that is very often committed by the state and its agencies is gradually subsumed by different non state armed groups. The seven states comprising the ‘northeast’ has officially more than 38 banned organizations. These are armed groups created and formed along the lines of ethnicity, greater autonomy, self determination etc. It has become difficult to distinguish the genuine groups from the phony ones because many exist without any substantial political stand and scheme of modus-operandi. Many without sound ideology creating confusion, sometimes not too clear about the cause they are suppose to represent and fight for. The issues maybe genuine but there are a wide difference in the ideals they set and the means used to achieve it. For many it’s more about numbers so there is no screening of the individual’s background and most recruits join without understanding the cause but simply for reasons other than nationalism or patriotism and many with a history of petty crimes. All these get reflected in the form of splittance, individual differences, leadership crisis, media war etc.
Yet, within this negativity among different armed groups there is the assertion that their war is people’s war because they claim that they fight for a common cause. They call themselves freedom fighters, liberators, nationalist, patriots, revolutionaries etc., which have become jargons that makes no sense, use d just to validate their existence because most of the armed groups use and resort to very unjust means that makes one seriously question their claim as peoples movement. Many of them are operating like nothing less than organized crime groups. Besides the fratricidal killings the spate of assault and violence committed on the civilians indicates that warfare is increasingly becoming anti people. They have failed to make a distinction between civilians and the force they are suppose to fight against that civilians become victims of different armed groups. Bombs are hurled and fixed at public places. Civilians are victims of land mines and wrong targets of such devices placing them at high risks and leaving them to fend themselves from both the arms of the state and the non state groups.
Almost everyday we get to read someone shot at, another life attempted, someone getting killed. Adding on to the list the latest entries are people like Dr. Maongwati, Hesso Mao, Xavier Rutsa, Shimthar Muivah, Govind, Thangthuam, Khamkhanjan, Indrasen, Imtilemba; whose names public memory will not erase so soon for reasons that they have come to represent victims of armed groups. It is as though they are faceless and nameless people and as though it is not a big deal that armed different groups go on committing with the assumption that guns have wielded unchallenging power for them, that it will be just another victim of some excuse they will invent, but a folly because with every act they are unleashing the dormant public rage for they cannot go on fooling people all the time. One wonders who have given these groups the right to sit on the judgment throne and take peoples lives. The issue is not about what they have done to get attempted or assassinated but rather who have the right to claim the life of another.
Guns and arms are seen as the ultimate power which is not the case. We are in a time when ‘dialogue’ rather than arms have come to make much more sense. The politics of arms have increasingly lost its influence yet; arms rather than politics are dictating most movements negating the very existence of even the genuine struggling groups. Recalling the words of an activist at this juncture makes a lot of sense. He said that “people take up arms because they cherish lives not death”. So if these very people who supposedly wage people’s war kill their own people how do they defend their cause and their movement. The trend continues unabated that pose serious challenge to the so called peoples movements. The rights they stand for or claim and the battle they wage becomes utterly meaningless. People’s movement represents struggle and they can never succeed without the mandate of the people. Their strength is derived from people, not in taking peoples lives and there is absolutely no justification in claiming lives. You take up arms, you wage a war, and you better be responsible for you are answerable to people and to justice.
