The summary execution of a drug addict who had murdered a child by the separatist People's Liberation Army (PLA) is a disturbing indication of internalisation of violence in Manipur, states Imphal Free Press in this editorial titled Brutal Justice:
"In an academic sense, it is also interesting to note how distinctly calibrated violence is on everybody’s moral scale. Hence, the violence involved in the murder of the child was obnoxious, but the execution of the murderer was justice. It is as if our society is in such a passionate state of confused emotions, induced by the violence all around for so many decades, that often the only safety valve its unfortunate denizens are privileged to, is to scream blood and vengeance every now and then.
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We will reserve the third cheer till such a time as the justice delivery mechanism, be it those of the underground or overground governent, abandons all arbitrary elements and becomes an edified institution built by the collective wisdom of the people through refined and democratic means. Shouldn’t we recall that one of the strongest objections against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, for instance, was on the ground that it departs from institution and strays into the arbitrary domain, and the dangers thereof?The episode also perhaps tells another familiar story – the breakdown of institutions in the establishment. For whatever the reason the kind of catharsis witnessed after justice was meted out to the child murderer has come to be far beyond the scope of the establishment. The erosion of the moral authority of the establishment over its subjects is near total, and there are today very few who still fully believe that the establishment, rather those in charge of it, are capable of doing any good, leave aside deliver justice."
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