Festivals can wait, assert displaced students

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Oct 31 : The Internally Displaced Persons Students' Welfare  Association (IDPSWA) has condemned the decision of the Government to organise Sangai Festival amid the 'unsettled humanitarian crisis' in Manipur.
IDPSWA, in a statement, stated that the Government's insistence on hosting the Sangai Festival under the banner of  'promoting peace and tourism' is a stark contradiction to the ground realities that prevail in Manipur today.
The State continues to reel under  division, displacement and despair with over tens of thousands of people  still living in makeshift relief camps without access to proper housing, livelihood or education,  it said.
Saying that the grandeur  of a festival should not  overshadow the pain and loss endured by IDPs, the association added that organising  such an event will expose the State's failure to priorities rehabilitation and reconciliation.
It also said that relief camps are not meant to become permanent living arrangements.
To celebrate festivals while citizens remain trapped in relief camps is to normalise displacement, the association said and added that the Government's silence on long-term rehabilitation, coupled  with celebration of tourism conveys an alarming message that the displaced are to be forgotten while the facade of normalcy is projected to the outside world.
Saying that tourism and crisis are inherently incompatible, the association maintained that peace cannot be  painted over with colourful light and  cultural performances.
The world must know that the real story of Manipur today is not of celebration but of human endurance amid displacement, it said and urged the Government to reconsider its priorities and redirect its focus toward peace building, dialogue and the dignified rehabilitation of all the IDPs.
Festival can wait for human dignity cannot, it said and appealed to artists, performers, tourists and partners of The Sangai Festival to reflect deeply on the moral cost of celebration during a crisis.