IMPHAL, September 28: The recent developments in Manipur especially after the Manipur Assembly had passed three bills for the protection of the indigenous people call for serious scrutiny and introspection by all concerned, the Senior Citizens for Society Manipur said today.
A statement signed by the president of the organisation said the anger and impulsive uprising of the people in Churachandpur and Sadar Hills that had cost nine valuable human lives was indeed an unfortunate part of the story.
It said `We, the members of the Senior Citizens for Society, Manipur express our deep sense of shock and sorrow at the sad demise of the 9 people in the unfortunate incident and pray for the eternal peace of the departed souls.`
It said the Senior Citizens believe that now is the time for healing the hurt sentiments of the people by fulfilling our human duty of sharing and caring with each other in times of the distress and agony.
`At this critical juncture of our society if our Chief Minister as the guardian of the people of Manipur could pay a visit to Churachandpur at least to console the bereaved families of the nine deceased people it would give a healing touch to the hurt sentiments and feelings of the people and pave the way forward for mutual understanding and solidarity.`
`We, the Senior Citizens are old enough to dispassionately introspect the past without bias and we understand that the upheaval in Churachandpur was not devoid of reasons.`
It continued, the people of Churachandpur and Sadar Hills were perhaps deeply hurt by some irresponsible statements of some fringe elements who seemed to be unaware of the age old composite history of this ancient land.
It said unfortunately these fringe elements with no public support or mandate are played into the hands of those who wanted to break the centuries old integrity and composite social fabric of the State.
The statement also said that it is also aware that following the passing of the bills some damage has been done to the centuries old bonding of trust and amity that existed among our communities especially between the Meiteis and Kukis.
From our experience we believe that the social fabric that has been built through ages is too precious to be broken.
Therefore we, the Senior Citizens, urge all sections of people of the Hills and the Valley not to indulge in any activity that may aggravate the situation. We also fervently appeal to all politicians, legislators, CSOs, media persons to refrain from making any provocative statements, it said.
Finally, we earnestly urge upon our Civil Society Organisations in the hills to come forward with open mind and sit across the table with the State Government to thrash out everything and arrive at an honourable settlement of the problem. We believe we can overcome all differences soon. God bless you all and may peace prevail in our society.