Looking to CBI to deliver : The trust deficit

What if the CBI refuses to take up the death case of N Babysana ? This is a question which leaders of the JAC formed against the death of the girl child must have started exploring for this is a point which cannot be entirely written off. And this is also a scary proposition and in many ways this also tells the story of the deep trust deficit between the public and the State Police. It also in many ways script the sorry tale of the State Government unable to take the people along with them when it comes to sensitive issues such as the mysterious death of a girl child in a school boarding. What is the way forward ? Tough to say but it may well help if one goes back to July 18 and  recall the story minute by minute. In many ways, suspicion was kick started from the manner in which the matter was dealt with when parents of the deceased girl child arrived at the said school. This is probably the starting point which sowed the seeds of suspicion that the school authority was trying to fudge certain things. The stories that came from some former students of the school also went some way in viewing the school management with suspicion and this led to the call to regulate private boarding establishments in the State. In the face of the uproar, the School Education Department had to issue a circular that school boarding houses have to follow the norms and regulations laid down by the Union Human Resource Development and invited suggestions from the schools and others to submit their suggestions. Not yet clear if the response of the schools and those running boarding houses has been good but at least this is a beginning and all should come forward and chip in their mite.
It stands that the suggestions sought by the School Education Department will not answer the question of how to deal with the present uproar over the mysterious death of the young girl child. But this is the beginning, a step taken so that Manipur does not see another story of Babysana and break the hearts of the people. The question then still stands, now what ? Will the State Government continue to hunt members of the JAC and shut them up like some common criminals ? Such an approach cannot definitely be the answer and the State Government has to look for ways to resolve the issue. On the other hand, members of the JAC too should not be seen as politicising the issue for ultimately it would go against the popular demand that the truth be unearthed and the guilty, if any, be nailed.  The dead do not tell tales and N Babysana will obviously not come back to say how she passed away, and it is here that a degree of trust between the JAC and by extension the people and the Government be put into place. This may be easier said than done but a beginning has to be made and obviously the State Government should take the first step. That there is a big trust deficit between the public and the different arms of the Government is a given and the first step towards addressing the trust deficit should be to acknowledge this point.