Without a war cry or formal declaration, a new civil war rages, and if not arrested immediately will have disastrous consequences and nearly did in the confrontation between Assam and it’s neighboring state of Mizoram, where civilians were not the only casualty, but policemen killed by policemen!

Unheard off, right?

Not really, in the American Civil War, in the nineteenth century, American fought against American with Lincoln leading one side, and the other led by the Confederates. The Union won, not before much bloodshed.

States fought against the union, and that seems to be what is happening here, as the Centre unleashes the CBI, the drugs policemen and the economic guardians against citizens who they feel need to be put in place, and the states retaliate using their own local police!

It’s war and needs to be stopped immediately, before it settles down to bloodshed as what we saw in the Assam-Mizoram feud, with lives lost!   

In recent times, Trump tried to do this in the US and used his liberal Covid tactics in the Republican ruled states. Today, those states are suffering from a surge of Covid-19 deaths and rampant disease all through listening to a macho leader who believed he was invincible as a braggart and bully!

Democracy has no place for such!

But coming back to the battles fought in our own country, who do we follow, Lincoln or Trump?

Simple isn’t it? Trump fought for racism, for the continuation of white supremacy, Lincoln fought for the freedom of men, even if they were slaves!

Equality against Racism!

Is that the civil war going on here? Starting by using union and state machinery against each other and even resorting to firearms? These are warning signals, and there’s a need to heed these signs because our country has traversed much distance through listening carefully to each other’s approval and disenchantment murmurs!

Today, we have leaders who have distinguished themselves on the international stage, and India through such leadership can hold her head high, but these leaders need to look carefully at their own homeland even as they make a name for the country abroad, because a disunited country will put all their hard work to waste.

Today, what is needed is not a hugging of other leaders abroad, but a hug and embrace of our own people.

Reassurances are needed. Statesmanlike skills need to be attained. We need leaders who will recognize we are united by our diversity and embrace that concept even as they throw out methods that brought them to power, and here I’m talking of both state and centre!

For leaders who have the capability to inflict surgical strikes and share bear hugs, it is hugs that are the need of the hour, recognizing the pledge we used to say in school, that all Indians are my brothers and sisters!

Then and only then can we stop a civil war..!

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