On arrival of the 28th raising day of the proscribed Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) which falls on Monday, its chairman N Oken has initiated a discourse with all concerned about the present situation of the people and the revolutionary movement in Manipur.
"On behalf of KYKL, I offer revolutionary greetings to revolutionary organisations, people, civil society organizations, public leaders, intellectuals, and the media fraternity across the ‘Western South East Asia (WESEA)’ region, he stated in his message. I also expressed gratitude to the health-care providers who successfully fought the first and second waves of Covid pandemic with incredible courage.
I look forward to being able to successfully combat the pandemic in the event that the next wave arrives. Also, my heartfelt condolences go out to those ‘Kangleichas’ who have lost their lives due to the pandemic.
It is not an exaggeration to state that the revolutionary movement in our society has reached its nadir. The notion of revolution now seems to be non-existent in the consciousness of ‘Kangleichas.’ People's faith in the cause has waned, and fewer people now believe in revolution. Even those few people we think are committed to the cause have begun to reluctantly withdraw from their commitment and self- belief.
Those who are opposed to the liberation movement, on the other hand, are now engaged in anti-revolutionary activities in record numbers and with no fear. We are critically reliant on the handouts of Indian imperial masters since one must work to one's highest ability to sustain, and our productive base is too small.
As a result, many of us have come to believe that backing Indian colonialism in order to get monetary gain is the correct and sensible option. We seem to have forgotten the importance of protecting our national identity while struggling for survival. Those who are concerned for the nation and the people have been called fools, while those who do not care about the country, society, or their people have been dubbed wise and normal people who understand the law and norms of the society.
Similarly, revolutionary groups and revolutionaries in ‘Kangleipak’ (Manipur) are falling apart. The majority of revolutionary cadres have no qualms about quitting the struggle; it has become a way of life for the revolutionary class. Anti-revolutionary views, such as failing to believe in the revolution, lack of trusting their own people, disillusionment in a better future, giving in to the enemy as the correct act, prioritizing self-interest, and seeking the easiest way to meet the end have undoubtedly taken roots in most revolutionary cadres.
We have reached a point in history when those who continue to fight for revolution can be seen as insane.
Worse than individual cadres abandoning the party is the formation of a trend in which revolutionary organizations as a whole have abandoned the struggle in the name of peace and development by engaging in peace talks with the enemy. This is just a liquidationist act intended to annihilate the movement.
In the last 1950s/60s, we had witnessed revolutionary organisations leave revolutionary movements through peace talks in ‘WESEA’. Renouncing revolutionary movements through peace talks with the enemy has been a chronic, incurable disease for the region since 1964. In the pretext of peace talks, many of the leading ‘Wesean’ revolutionary organizations had already abandoned the movement. Major armed revolutionary groups have not yet embarked on this disastrous course in Kangleipak (Manipur). However, in Kangleipak, we have recently witnessed a new trend in which many opportunists have formed factional groups in order to abandon the cause.
They have attracted revolutionary cadres by promising them big opportunities.
Former revolutionary cadres who had surrendered to the enemy had even been re-recruited. Moreover, sympathizers have been enticed to become active members of their organizations by promising them government jobs.
One of the primary reasons for the surrender to the enemy by those who want to quit the movement has to do with the wrong perspective from which they view the movement. Their idea is that the movement is stepping backwards because it has not been able to garner mass support, and that it will never win, so the best to move forward is to abandon it. A lack of critical thinking is behind this idea. The crumbling revolutionary state that we are witnessing today is not that it can never be reversed to our advantage. We cannot simply take people’s aversion to revolutionary movement and hatred of the revolutionary people as something inborn since the day they were born.
Neither can the increasing power of colonial masters be taken as the major reason for people’s non-participation in the movement.
Many factors will contribute to the challenging social conditions in which the revolutionary movement moves south".
To be continued
