The Pathetic Sadists — The Highway Blockers
“Manipur braces itself for a long disruption of normal life with the United Naga Council (UNC), calling a 48-hour general strike with effect from August 11 midnight and the Kuki Statehood Demand Committee calling a 72-hour general strike shortly after the end of the UNC strike.” — The Hindu, 7 August 2013
And the general strikes have been announced when the state is reeling under shortage of essential commodities after landslides on the highway recently.
Some overambitious hill people in Manipur are becoming a pain in the ass. And this is becoming intolerable. For airing their grievances, they have been resorting to blocking the highways—there are two of them, connecting the state to other parts of the country and the neighbouring Myanmar.
If the impotent government is turning a blind eye to their problems, they have every right to fuck the rulers, provided they have the guts up their rat’s ass. Who says dissent is illegal? It happens in every shitty corners of the world.
However, why would their complaints, and their most pathetic issues, pose a threat to other people? Because, it has been always this case ever since the NSCN-IM has started sleeping with the government of India nearly two decades ago. Now it has become a twice- or thrice-in-a-year affair when some obscure organisations would announce an economic blockade or bandh, whichever they prefer to, and drive the people crazy. Black marketeers have always been having a field day as the price of petrol and other essential commodities skyrockets.
We grew up amidst bandhs and general strikes, so the story is not new. Next week, we will be having one of the major general strikes as India celebrates its Independence Day. It's always been a bandh day like the Republic Day. We are used to the impositions and diktats but sometimes, it exceeds our comprehension. Highway blockade is one fine example.
In the last decade or so, we have been giving in ourselves to the economic blockades. Yes, if you are lucky, you can travel but you cannot ferry the goods and commodities. However, I was not, last year, when I had to cancel my ticket twice: when there was a bandh in the highway and again, when another general strike was imposed elsewhere in the Northeast.
The blockade is just like a death toll for a state so dependent on others for its existence. Even the chickens and eggs are imported in bulk from other parts of the country. Then, just imagine the pain when you have someone dear and close critically ill in the hospital and the doctors cannot help because they have no oxygen because all the oxygen cylinders are stranded on the other side of the highway.
We doubt the highway blockers have ever got what they want from the government. The never-ending blockades are a testimony. If they cannot admit they are sadists, then it is clear: they have rats’ brains.
For your kind information, different communities a.k.a ethnic groups inhabit the valley and hills of this forbidden state. It will be thus no surprising if there are overtones of communal shit-exchange.
The highway blockers have an assumption that the valley people are the cause of their suffering. That is so naรฏve. If they keep thinking and behaving on that line, then there is no need to reason. Do any of us read between the lines of this ever-widening gap between the hill and valley people? First, it was Hinduism and later by Christianity or precisely religion that has drove a wedge between the people. Second, it is the politics of the land—manipulated by the rulers. It might not be our fault if we slip but it will be certainly ours, if we do not get up on our own.
During the period of war elsewhere in the world, it is said that the protestors would offer no harm to educational institutions and medical supplies. But that is not so in our backyard. So, something is terribly wrong with the hill people as much as it is with the valley people. One classic example of our dimwittedness is the protest against the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, while mortgaging and paying Rs 10–15 lakhs as bribes for menial police posts.
Cutting the crap, highway blockade is not the sole protest form they have at their disposal. Things like civil disobedience, boycotting government, demonstrations are surely some ways to start with.
The highway blockers should have a discussion with their elected representatives posted in the seemingly as much as ridiculously posh Imphal and find a solution. If legal procedures look redundant, they should grow some balls and break away. It is no time to be sadists when so many people are fighting for the right to self-determination, sovereignty, separate administration, and autonomous states and what not. In short, stop being sadists and get a life!
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| Enough is enough Image: Anonymous ART of Revolution |
Some overambitious hill people in Manipur are becoming a pain in the ass. And this is becoming intolerable. For airing their grievances, they have been resorting to blocking the highways—there are two of them, connecting the state to other parts of the country and the neighbouring Myanmar.
If the impotent government is turning a blind eye to their problems, they have every right to fuck the rulers, provided they have the guts up their rat’s ass. Who says dissent is illegal? It happens in every shitty corners of the world.
However, why would their complaints, and their most pathetic issues, pose a threat to other people? Because, it has been always this case ever since the NSCN-IM has started sleeping with the government of India nearly two decades ago. Now it has become a twice- or thrice-in-a-year affair when some obscure organisations would announce an economic blockade or bandh, whichever they prefer to, and drive the people crazy. Black marketeers have always been having a field day as the price of petrol and other essential commodities skyrockets.
We grew up amidst bandhs and general strikes, so the story is not new. Next week, we will be having one of the major general strikes as India celebrates its Independence Day. It's always been a bandh day like the Republic Day. We are used to the impositions and diktats but sometimes, it exceeds our comprehension. Highway blockade is one fine example.
In the last decade or so, we have been giving in ourselves to the economic blockades. Yes, if you are lucky, you can travel but you cannot ferry the goods and commodities. However, I was not, last year, when I had to cancel my ticket twice: when there was a bandh in the highway and again, when another general strike was imposed elsewhere in the Northeast.
The blockade is just like a death toll for a state so dependent on others for its existence. Even the chickens and eggs are imported in bulk from other parts of the country. Then, just imagine the pain when you have someone dear and close critically ill in the hospital and the doctors cannot help because they have no oxygen because all the oxygen cylinders are stranded on the other side of the highway.
 |
| The hill people assume the valley people are less stupid! Image: Revolutionary Images |
We doubt the highway blockers have ever got what they want from the government. The never-ending blockades are a testimony. If they cannot admit they are sadists, then it is clear: they have rats’ brains.
For your kind information, different communities a.k.a ethnic groups inhabit the valley and hills of this forbidden state. It will be thus no surprising if there are overtones of communal shit-exchange.
The highway blockers have an assumption that the valley people are the cause of their suffering. That is so naรฏve. If they keep thinking and behaving on that line, then there is no need to reason. Do any of us read between the lines of this ever-widening gap between the hill and valley people? First, it was Hinduism and later by Christianity or precisely religion that has drove a wedge between the people. Second, it is the politics of the land—manipulated by the rulers. It might not be our fault if we slip but it will be certainly ours, if we do not get up on our own.
During the period of war elsewhere in the world, it is said that the protestors would offer no harm to educational institutions and medical supplies. But that is not so in our backyard. So, something is terribly wrong with the hill people as much as it is with the valley people. One classic example of our dimwittedness is the protest against the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, while mortgaging and paying Rs 10–15 lakhs as bribes for menial police posts.
Cutting the crap, highway blockade is not the sole protest form they have at their disposal. Things like civil disobedience, boycotting government, demonstrations are surely some ways to start with.
The highway blockers should have a discussion with their elected representatives posted in the seemingly as much as ridiculously posh Imphal and find a solution. If legal procedures look redundant, they should grow some balls and break away. It is no time to be sadists when so many people are fighting for the right to self-determination, sovereignty, separate administration, and autonomous states and what not. In short, stop being sadists and get a life!
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