Mahasabha is in Crisis

By RK Rishikesh Sinha

Disclaimer: I haven’t been persuaded or asked by anyone to take the view mentioned in the article. It is my personal interpretation.

Mahasabha’s roots over half-a-century ago in the crisis of ‘tribe’ identity, now find its own image in crisis. This time the crisis is internal (in the community), contrary to the external forces to which it had fought under the British rule.

This time, it snowballed to such an extent that questions were raised against the Mahasabha’s very validity of its existence. It is not that people revered Mahasabha since its inception. One would find people around them ‘mysteriously’ unhappy anything about that goes with the name of ‘Mahasabha’. It is a hard fact that we all know. It is impossible to keep everybody happy in this world, and Mahasabha is not an exception.

The recent developments in Assam brought Mahasabha to public scrutiny. The effect of the simmering tension has also been felt online. Read Rajkumar Chandrakanta’s comment in the Facebook page of this blog on October 1. He suggested Mahasabha to learn something if it is willing to serve the community in real ground. “Interestingly, these self claimed leaders failed to comply with the SOCIETY REGISTRATION norms till today,” he commented. Adding to Chandrakanta’s comment, once part and parcel of Mahasabha Bhimsen Sinha said people to ‘judge’ the apex body.

Bishnupriya Manipuri population scattered all round the world, miles away from the epicenter where the drama was unfolding, its intensity could be gauged from the fact that a meeting was organized by Nikhil Bishnupriya Manipuri Yuva Parishad in Guwahati on October 18, 2010. Read here

Over fifty people attending the meeting no doubt had voiced the case filed against Mahasabha, but they couldn’t deny the fact that they were not scrutinizing the apex body and the people alike. Office-bearers, pro-Mahasabha, and quasi-Mahasabha members may deny that there is no crisis as such. True, there is as such no crisis. But, such incidents have definitely created a ‘crisis’ in the people’s mind towards the high-profile body, especially for those who respect the body and its spirit.