The events of Friday September 5, when three high end vehicles with sophisticated weapons (apparently modern airguns) were parked near the state secretariat and a dozen men dressed like black cat commandos were hovering around, are enough to cause a stir. Now why would a 25 year old stage this and to what end? What is the psychological motivation behind this drama? Just two weeks ago, a journalist from Nagaland, Deep Saikia was shot at by a similar type of gun and was wounded on his foot and arm and had to be hospitalised. The shooter said he was aiming at birds and shot the journalist accidentally. The question everyone is asking is whether the journalist looked like a bird. This same journalist had earlier had an altercation with the Deputy CM of Nagaland, Y Patton on a report he had filed which the minister did not like. It’s natural to put two and two together and to assume that the young shooter might have been a supporter of Patton who sought to warn the journalist not to foray into uncharted territory.
The centrepiece of the Meghalaya incident Meban Snaitang asked rather brusquely whether it was against the law to carry airguns and employ private security and if so under which law? The public of Meghalaya particularly Shillong who are victims of interminably long traffic jams have often voiced their irritation at the VIP vehicles being allowed to ride roughshod when citizens are stuck. The irritation is building up into anger and a time might soon come when public anger spills out into the streets. While investigation into the Snaitang affair is going on, the public can only wonder at the audacious flaunting of affluence of the young man and what demons is he fighting inside his head and heart. Clearly, he must be influenced by movies like Zombie Jungle.
But this is no laughing matter. It reflects the kind of society we live in today. The VIP culture is anathema to many and more so to those that are shunted out like dirt when they are walking on the roads and VIP vehicles are passing by. This used to be an egalitarian tribal society. Today it has metamorphosed into a broken society, where the affluent and the underdogs co-exist but with aversion for each other. The former think it’s their entitlement to ride roughshod over the laws and rules; the latter are arrested on flimsy grounds or treated as lesser humans because of their poverty. This flaunting of the VIP culture in a tribal society makes people question what gives the elected VIP or the public servants the right to treat the people who elected them with the disdain that servants are treated. These days the plethora of political appointees and even relatives of ministers also brandish their VIP cult by throwing their weight around. People notice this and suffer in silence until a Meban Snaitang arrives to put the law on its head!
