Are you Alive? My Take on Manipur Violence

Are you alive? My Take on the Manipur Violence

TRIGGER WARNING – SEXUAL VIOLENCE, RAPE, GANG RAPE.

Ask yourself…Are you alive?

Walk up to the mirror, look straight into the eyes of the person that you see and ask, “Are you alive?”

I think it’s better if you don’t do it – because you might not be ready for the answer.

I know you are busy with your lives, I know you have to carry on with your daily chores. But still, how can you be ok with what’s been going on in a part of our country for the last 80-odd days?

How can you be so ignorant? How? Are you alive?

Since the last couple of days there have been videos circulating on social media where two women can be seen paraded naked with a horde of young men committing all sorts of inhumane atrocities one can hardly even imagine – whether groping them, mishandling them, touching their private parts, dragging them and whatnot (It is not easy to mention all of them here without feeling nauseated).

This is not going to be a political post nor a post creating awareness about some social issues. This is going to be an uncomfortable question-asking and answer-seeking post about the colossal failure of the entire system right from the First Citizen of the country who happens to be a woman hailing from the tribal community to the last person who had the power to do something about it. (Some may consider it an angry rant)

But is this a sudden failure or is there a systematic approach behind the entire turn of events?

As per news reports, this video is from May 4th, 2023. The police have confirmed the authenticity of the video. Clashes broke out between certain communities in Manipur on May 3rd, 2023, and then the internet was suspended. It’s been 78 days since. As per another report it has been highlighted that around 200 such cases have taken place. The CM of the state has confessed that as per his knowledge, at least 100 of such ghastly events have taken place. Imagine the unspeakable horror the people have been going through.

One of the survivors has said that they were in a police van when they were fed to the mob. All this while the police and state machinery was aware of what was happening in the entire state but the brave police lodged a Zero-FIR that too on 18th March, 2023 although the faces of the perpetrators were clearly visible. The first arrest was made only once the video went viral after 2-months of lodging that Zero-FIR. What efficiency!

Lengthiest constitution in the world and we still wait for a clip to go viral for some action in the name of tokenism to take place.

The governor of the state, who happens to be a woman, has stated in a TV interview that she has never witnessed such horrifying acts in her entire lifetime. She claimed that she continuously reported the mis-happenings to the centre. She should have realised that the centre will pay heed to it only if there are elections lined up in the state.

In the past, the president’s rule has been imposed for far less of a worrisome situation. The army could have been asked to step in anytime in the past 80 days. There are about 10 Army/AR brigades in that state which is about 65000 army personnel and as per former advisor of the CM there have been an additional 35000 CPMF rushed to the state with a total population of around 3.22 million. It is way too long to take any action.

The so-called supreme leader who commands so much power and respect that he can stop a war between two countries doesn’t have the courtesy to even appeal once to stop the barbaric cruelty that is being relentlessly carried out.

The Union Minister for Women & Child Development has reduced her entire portfolio to trolling a guy who doesn’t even hold an MP position anymore. If this would have taken place in the pre-New India era before 2014 I am sure she must have been on the roads with cylinders around her neck. But what can one expect from someone who hasn’t uttered a single word against party members who are accused of repeated crimes against women. All they can do is give parole to serial rapists and if not then they would take a step ahead in inviting them to the podium and garlanding them. If this doesn’t affect you – Ask yourself – Are you alive? 

I am appalled to see that till now no one has called out the fallacy i.e. ‘double engine’. In practice when is a second engine required? – either when one engine isn’t powerful enough to carry the entire rack or when there is an engine failure but it is never used to double the speed. But then in this country who cares for logic. 

Our bent-over-backward media, the fourth pillar of democracy and the first pillar of lickology, has done their best to protect its masters. they didn’t even care to take an effort to report any of the news coming out of that state. 

If you are going to talk about any whataboutery or selective outrage or any of that kind of BS then I just want to politely say to you – SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN. I pity your audacity. Stop justifying everything and anything. 

All one hears is we are this some 5000-year-old civilisation and all that chest-thumping around it and yet we see such cases happening time and again. Most of them still go unreported.  

I am not here to say who was wrong or who was right – we have all failed. Yes, this is a collective shame. This is what happens when you consistently promote the politics of hate. Like fire, hate too does not discriminate. There surely comes a day when it begins to engulf the one who started it. 

This is what happens when you invite people to the stage, who have been convicted of gang rapes and celebrate them, then you are not only emboldening such acts you are actually promoting them. The longer you keep promoting the mob culture the sooner it is going for them to come for you.

I wonder how we got here in these glorious 5000 years. What and when did we reverse Darwin’s evolution, where we definitely look like homo sapiens but behave not even primitively? The first men who lived in jungles and ate what they hunted would have been more civilised than this with their fellow creatures. 

If you are such brave warriors and protectors of your communities, draw your swords and take the battlefields. Why bring women into this? Why? 

The moment you decide to disrespect a woman to fight your battles, that very moment you lose any bit of manhood that was mistakenly left. You are just like a rotten corpse. The idea of placing one’s so-called honour in a vagina is so sickening. But yeah 5000-year-old civilisation. 

The megalomaniac regularly claims that he is hardly concerned with the opposition leaders and that one particular dynast shouldn’t be taken seriously. But when the same leader speaks outside India, it is cried that he has tarnished the image of the nation. I seriously want to understand, whether anybody says it outside the country or not, how this cannibalistic treatment of other humans including women and children glorifies the image of this 5000-year-old civilisation.

Violence can never be the answer. But still, if you want your answers through violence you have no right whatsoever to commit ghastly atrocities against women and children. Ask yourself – Are you alive?

Sadly their ideology stems from the teachings of a guy who wrote the book 6 glorious epochs of Indian History where he advocates using rape as a political tool. 

If this doesn’t rattle you, let me help you by breaking this news to you that you have been long dead. You haven’t just realized it but your conscience died long long back. Moving like a cassette in a player with certain buttons isn’t actually living. Choosing to ignore and not question is what makes me question your intentions.

I wonder what you are waiting for to ask for any accountability. I know many whose blind faith and allegiance to a certain ideology has leaped to a level where if something like this happens to their family members they will still find a way to justify it. They might even go ahead and call it a Masterstroke.

Congratulations to all of you. You have got the new India you wanted.

Manas Mukul

Pic Credit: Scroll.in