It’s been over a month since the ethnic clash between the Kukis and Meiteis/Meeteis broke out in the state on that fateful day of May 3, 2023. Since that horrendous day, over 100 lives have been lost, thousands of houses have been burned, and properties worth crores have been destroyed. The peace and tranquility of Sanaleibak were all gone in 60 seconds. Once known for its scenic beauty, hence called the ‘Switzerland of the East’, today, black, dark smoke and the cries of the innocent and the young engulf the state. And how did it come to this?
Fingers have been pointed, blaming each other for starting the chaos. But remember that when one finger points at the other, there are three/four fingers pointing back. And as it says in the Bible, one must first remove the speck from one’s eye before pointing at the speck in someone’s eyes. Hence, this is not the time to point fingers at each other to find out who started it.
"An eye for an eye makes the world go blind," Mahatma Gandhi said. Yes, an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth is no solution to any problem in the world. And as much as one community blamed the other for starting the chaos in the first place, perhaps the blame game will not be the answer.
And amidst all this chaos, the visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah was highly expected to help restore normalcy in the state. His meeting with the CSOs and public leaders of both communities on different occasions, urging them to maintain peace and normalcy for about 10–15 days so that their demands could be discussed, was highly expected to restore normalcy in the state. And despite his visit, one will not deny that attacks, killings, and arson continue in the peripheral areas of the state, and the blame-game of ‘they started, they started’ continues.
Now, only if one of the communities could really initiate a peace process and stop attacking the other. Only if one of the communities could say, ‘We quit! We are not going to attack anymore! We want peace!’ and the others would follow. Only if one of the communities could ‘blame’ the other for ceasing all the attacks, the arsons, and the killings and say, ‘Since they started it, we are doing it too’.
As much as this may sound like a utopian ideology, wouldn’t that be a sweet jingle to the ears? We may say, that’s a foolish idea to restore peace. But as they say, a man who asks a question is a fool for 5 minutes, while a man who never asks a question is a fool forever. May we dare ask if this notion is really possible.
So, as a fool for 5 minutes, let us ask ourselves, ‘Can one of the communities quit on all the arsons, attacks and killings to bring back peace and normalcy in the state and the other to follow?’
Perhaps, we can then blame each other and say, "They started the peace initiative, and so, we followed. That would be the sweetest blame game. Or else, an eye for an eye will make the world go blind. We are all blind to humanity now.
