The Manipur crisis shows how the government in Imphal has abdicated its authority. The crisis has been on for three months. The government has given way totally to groups of people blockading the two highways by turns. People are suffering and the agitators have no justification for their action. The highways link the state to the rest of the Northeast and India as a whole. The demonstration is without logic, undemocratic and inhuman. The public is being starved of essential commodities and their prices are staggering. Petrol and cooking gas have done a vanishing trick. The government which has allowed the situation to continue for three months is insensitive to the needs of the people and is reneging on constitutional obligations. Surprisingly, it belongs to the ruling UPA at the Centre.
Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh says that he is at the end of his tether. But it is too late. He has done nothing to lift the blockade and take action against the offenders for 100 days. People also have the duty to offer peaceful resistance. Blockade of highways is a routine affair in Manipur to air grievances at the cost of the common man. Demands may or may not be justified but the means are certainly to be deplored. It adds to the agony caused by insurgency in the state. Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram has visited the disturbed region but mere appeals to the offenders will not do.
