Jai Ho!

Editorial:-
The violent trespass by a vandal at a newspaper printing press in Gangtok on Tuesday was the latest in a string of violent incidents in the capital. There have been a substantial number of political clashes, incidents of arson, stone pelting etc over the past couple of years and the continuing trend suggests that the situation will only get worse as the poll campaign heats up. Every act of political violence is reprehensible not only because violence drags civilisation down, but also because when politics resorts to violence, it abandons communication and persuasive skills which make it about people. Played with violence, politics becomes a dance, okay confrontation, between supporters aligned with different camps instead of being a contest of ideologies to win people’s endorsement. It hence becomes necessary for the society at large to step in and demand better conduct. Even if social organisations and community groups feel awkward commenting on turf battles between political groups, attack on the media should provide them with the neutral ground to slip in their say, condemn the incident and set out the rules. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be happening. The only groups condemning the recent attacks on media-persons and printing press are either journalist groups or political parties; the former is an affected party and the latter always ready with  comment anyways.
No social group has bothered to comment on the incident and in this silence screams a worrying sign for Sikkim.
It is becoming increasingly obvious with such displays of indifference that the social engagement required to keep society safe and priorities straight, is acutely wanting in Sikkim. And before one suggests that this comment comes only because the media is affected at present, one hastens to add that similar, and in fact more disturbing indifference, has also been rued in this section when the problem of suicides and addiction go largely unaddressed at the societal level. What is even more worrying in Sikkim’s case is that the society at large is not only disinterested, but also increasingly dismissive, reading of drug busts and instead of getting scandalised and worried, commenting that the right palms must not have been greased. Or say in the case of attacks on the media, believing that the media somehow deserves to be slapped around from time to time. When one says that these signs are worrying, it is not just because the indifference makes media more unsafe or youth more exposed to drugs, but because the lack of conscientious civic engagement is compromising everything else as well, from the quality of governance to the delivery of services to work culture. When people and their representative organisations join issue with events, incidents and occasions they are not directly related to, they establish links, build connections, set up a network of organisational reciprocity which, as it grows stronger, leads to civic solidarity. Societies which are so reinforced have been proved to produce such results as better schools, faster economic development, more inclusive growth, lower crime and also more effective governance. The virtues of better social connectedness are obvious because with improved coordination comes amplified representation and as groups learn to work better together, they also shed their suspicions and become better at resolving differences. That is a rather desirable future to head towards and the process begins as simply as by starting to notice, react and comment without the blinkers of established positions…