DESAM, AIMS, ANSAM on target Nail the guilty

The Democratic Students’ Alliance of Manipur (DESAM), Apunba Irepakki Maheirol Singpanglup (AIMS) and All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur (ANSAM) are bang on target. The High Court of Manipur has already spoken, cracked the whip and cancelled the Manipur Civil Services Combined Competitive Examination (MCSCCE) 2016 and while a good number of youngsters, who were hitherto officers belonging to the Manipur Civil Service (MCS), Manipur Police Service (MPS) and allied services such as Manipur Finance Service (MFS), have now been rendered jobless, not much thought seems to have been given to the players, the rogues who toyed around with the future of the young people and messed up their future. The three students were bang on target in demanding that all the ‘culprits’, who would put to shame all the negative characters one gets to watch in Hollywood flicks, should be identified and punished accordingly. Crack the whip and set examples that no one has the right to toy around with the future of young students, who had just passed out from universities and  who were bright and hard working enough to sit for one of the toughest competitive examinations in the State. Not all the 80 or so young people who are now jobless, having been officers for over two years,  can be viewed as having played the corruption card, or greased the palms of anyone to get through the examination and the only way to deliver anything that comes close to justice would be to pull up those officials/employees or whoever were behind the scam and made fitting examples in front of the whole world. That would be poetic justice, though this wouldn’t guarantee the young people the jobs which they have lost. It is scams like this which erode people’s trust and faith in the examinations conducted by the Manipur Public Service Commission and to think that this is the highest recruiting body in the State and the filth and dirt indeed runs deep.
One drop of poison poisons the whole glass of milk, this is how the Imphal bench of Gauhati High Court back then ruled while quashing yet another examination conducted by the MPSC back in 1994. Many of the candidates in 2016, who were both declared successful and now have the misfortune of finding themselves without a job and those who were chucked out of the merit list due to corruption, would have just been toddlers at the most back then, but this is how the highest recruiting agency in the State has been functioning down the decades. Unfortunate it is that even after more than 26 years, the filth and dirt continue unabated within the MPSC. Now that the Court has ruled, more than a year back, it is time for the BJP led Government at Imphal to crack the whip, probe the matter thoroughly and then pull up those guilty of messing around with the future of the young people. Publicise their names, make it go viral and yes punish them according to law. This is the least that may be done for the candidates who appeared for the examination relying on their labour. What happened to the 2016 MCSCCE can also be said to be a reflection of all the rot that run deep in Manipur. The BJP led Government at Imphal should take this as the ideal opportunity to demonstrate that it means business and is here to cleanse the system. Cracking the whip now will go a long way in giving credence to its stand against corruption and will also give more substance and meaning to the move initiated such as opening the anti-corruption cell. There is still time. Form a committee, identify the guilty and pull them up and give them the negative publicity. Make their names go viral.