Tingplik Express

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. This profound statement made by Mahatma Gandhi is more than just relevant today. Gandhi’s words serve as a constant reminder in these perilous days of how the Nagas are being blinded by violence. The accusations and counter-accusations, the violence and counter-violence and the blame and counter-blame are eating away our very sense of humanness, and are tearing apart the moral fiber that binds us together. Surely an eye for an eye is making us all blind. In the past few days, so many precious lives have been painfully lost to unnatural circumstances and we are reminded that the Naga journey is one in which so many innocent lives have been cheated off their youth and from their aspirations to becoming fully conscious of their potential to generate live giving realities. For those of us involved in the media, we often do get lost in the rush of events of the day. And considering that a new edition has to be published every day, we sometimes get ironically disjointed from all that is happening around us and in the process, miss out on the human aspect of each tragedy. And so today, as I sit before the computer, my mind has taken a break and my heart is reminded of Gandhi’s warning that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Yet this profound statement has been constantly side-stepped and ignored all around the world, not just here in Nagaland. And so I wonder, why is it that we do not learn from the lessons of the past. Is it because humanity has already been blinded to reason? Yet recognizing that humanity has been created for a purpose and for a reason, I refuse to accept that humanity itself is compromised. And so from the rumble of despair, I still see hope; hope that allows me to yearn for a new beginning when we will finally realize and learn that the best way to get rid of your enemies, is to make them your friends.