RPF salutes, stresses collective effort to control COVID-I

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Sep 24 : While saluting all the frontline warriors of COVID-19 namely; health care workers, police, media persons, transporters, NGOs, CSOs, local clubs, student bodies and volunteers who have been battling against the pandemic selflessly, the proscribed Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) has underscored the paramount importance of collective effort to contain the pandemic in Manipur.
A statement issued by RPF president Irengbam Chaoren on the occasion of the 42nd raising day of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) paid homage to all the martyrs who laid down their lives in the course of the revolutionary movement.  
It also conveyed solidarity to all the people who have been suffering untold misery, and lost their near and dear ones on account of the coronavirus pandemic.
For the last 70 years since India allegedly annexed Manipur on October 15, 1949, the people have been leading a miserable life in the face of myriad repressive policies of the Government of India. In this juncture, a new virus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) surfaced all of a sudden in March this year and multiplied the woes and suffering of the people, the outfit said.  
It is not only Manipur which has been attacked by COVID-19 but the entire humanity living on this planet. In this global pandemic, more than 9 lakh and 70 thousand people have been killed and more than 3 crore and 10 lakh people have been infected across the world. In Manipur too, many people have been killed and infected by the virus apart from completely derailing socio-economic life of the whole State. It is the first and foremost priority for everyone to tackle and bring the contagion under control, the outfit asserted.
Although all the details of COVID-19 are not known to a vast majority of the people, everyone is aware of the major factors responsible for widespread transmission of the virus in Manipur.
“Yet, we are unable to contain the disease effectively. The unfolding situation does not warrant putting the entire blame on inadequate health care facilities and other related infrastructure because we have already seen how badly affected are the USA and Europe by the coronavirus although they have the best health care facilities and the most modern infrastructure”, Chaoren said.
 The rebel leader said it is of utmost importance for the Government to take up appropriate and sufficient measures and at the same time, public should put complete trust in these measures and follow them strictly. However, it is highly questionable whether the alleged puppet Manipur Government shall ever have the will and sagacity to draw up and enforce appropriate policies to contain the pandemic, he added.
In this global pandemic, the worst affected countries are the most popular democratic countries. Whereas these countries have no concrete policies and are unable to enforce effective measures upon their citizens to control the pandemic, the citizens think they have the right and freedom to choose whether they should wear face mask or not, reads the statement.
Chaoren said, “If we look up to citizens of these countries, the pandemic will overwhelm us more and more and it would ultimately become an insurmountable challenge.
“For a numerically small Nation like Manipur, we must look up to those countries which have successfully contained the pandemic, particularly China, the policies and methods they adopted and the responsibilities shared by citizens of these countries, and work collectively to save the Nation.
“We must always keep in mind that the Government of India and its self-centric leaders would never ever sincerely work to control the pandemic effectively because all the actions of Indian political leaders are always driven by consideration for electoral gains. Moreover quest for higher positions of power, polarization, forging alliances and counter-alliances to wrest political power and mudslinging against each other to misinterpret the very essence of democracy are intrinsic and common characters of these politicians,” it alleged.
The Indian democracy which does not have a solid foundation is only a namesake where some super-rich people, at their own whim and fancy, entrust political power to a handful of people handpicked by them while the common masses are incapacitated and reduced to mere vote banks, it alleged.
As per a report published by the Association of Democratic Reforms, 265 out of the 301 MPs of BJP and 43 out of 51 Congress MPs are crorepatis. Maximum number of MPs of other political parties are also crorepatis. Of all the incumbent MPs, 44 per cent are indicted in criminal cases. It is hard to believe that the Government of India which is predominated by such self-centric, super-rich people and criminals would ever pay full attention to tackling diseases like COVID-19 which would affect the poor masses on much larger scale and higher degree because they joined politics primarily to amass personal wealth and abuse political power to serve their personal interests, it said.
The outfit went on to say that the Government formed by such people never ever thought for the welfare of the poor masses. As a result, there are around 20 crore people in India including 6 crore children who cannot afford a square meal a day.
But the Government of China which is often termed as anti-people by Indian political leaders, took bold and successful steps to make whole China a moderately prosperous society by lifting 1 crore 37 lakh people out of extreme poverty every year since 2012, it said.
In the midst of the critical situation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many issues and challenges which the people of Manipur must face at present.
The Framework Agreement which is a direct attempt to polarize communities, the Suspension of Operation pact which makes ‘our own’ people collaborators of the Indian military forces, the proposed delimitation based on erroneous census data, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act which threatens demographic balance despite enforcing ILP, the diabolic policies of ‘HINDIA’ to obliterate and destroy Manipuri language and identity, the imminent environmental degradation on account of exploitation of underground natural resources, the sinister ploy to render Manipur completely dependent on mainland India for all basic requirements in the name of promoting trade and commerce, the drug war aimed at demoralizing and negating productivity of youth, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act which gives freedom to the Indian military to oppress the masses, the repercussions of India’s military challenge to China etc are some issues which the people must face while battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the outfit listed.  
“However, if we are not careful enough in tackling these issues, the situation may turn out to be contradictory to what Chairman Mao said, “Cannons and bombs fired by enemies awakened the people of China to a new dawn of freedom”. If our conscience is not clear enough, some sections of the people may become more Indian than the Indians themselves and this would be a serious setback to the liberation movement which will determine the future of Manipur” it said.