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Made in Manipur
Certain things, of which no one would be proud of, happen only in Manipur and even those prone to cooking up tall and exaggerated stories either to impress or give the shock treatment would not be able to spin a yarn that comes even remotely close to what the people of this tiny State has to undergo from time to time. Take the case of fuel shortage to name one of the few 'unique' things to happen here.
Ever since three fuel laden tankers did the magical act and 'disappeared' without reporting at the AOC depots another spell of fuel shortage has been staring the people in the face. No one knows when the three trucks decided to disappear into thin air but records available with the AOC depot states that the three trucks were among the ten trucks that arrived from Khatkhatti on April 25 and reported at the 2nd IRB post at Khuman Lampak. It is a different story the three trucks reappeared like the proverbial prodigal son and reported at the AOC depot on April 29.
No one seems to be interested in where the three trucks were during the four days of its disappearance. The funny part is even though the petrol pumps remained closed for a few days after the three trucks did the disappearing act, petrol was available abundantly in the black market. In other parts of the country smuggled goods are sold in the black market but here in Manipur while smuggled goods are at times sold in the open market without much interference from the authorities, petrol is sold in the black market. And the fact that no one deems it fit to complain is the icing on the cake. At the other end of the spectrum we have sundry organizations which will not hesitate to impose a Manipur bandh purely on the interest of a handful of people. This can happen only in Manipur.
Without demeaning anyone it may not be far off the mark to say that all these have made Manipur and by extension Manipuris a unique species inhabiting planet earth. Boycotting newspapers and threatening to boycott dailies solely on the basis that the newspaper in question had failed to give proper coverage to the inaugural function of a local club building happens only in Manipur! Surely we are a unique people, unique in the sense that we can tolerate absurdly long period of black outs, long period of fuel scarcity, long period of bandhs and strikes, unmotorable roads, faulty scales-used by shop keepers and vegetable vendors and even the shenanigans enacted by our political netas but we cannot tolerate 'injustices' like cutting down our pay and perks, closure of sick units that are draining the State exchequer, tough decisions like downsizing etc.
We are also aware that it is our 'democratic rights' to keep the whole neighbor awake using loud speakers during any festival. We talk of quality education but never protest whenever anyone decides to disrupt academic calendar and pollute the academic atmosphere of even the highest seat of learning, Manipur University. We all agree that corruption is the bane of society but think nothing of accepting money from candidates during election time. These are the contradictions that the people of Manipur have learnt to live with all these years and the beauty is no one is complaining.
(Courtesy: The
Sangai Express)
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