Manipur Is Crying For Justice Poem by Bernedita Rosinha Pinto

Ours is a country of so many religions
ours is a country of so many traditions;
ours is a country that respects every woman
ours is a country which is safest for women
yet the most dreadful incident in Manipur
distressed and shocked our nation
and the world simultaneously:
as here in our country, day and night,
so many women keep working everywhere
so many women travel everywhere
without any fear,
as in our country is supremacy of freedom
as in our country is safety and protection of women
and none can ever face any brutality or dishonor
until it is a day of the jackals
who go out there and grab helpless women
to abuse them and to satisfy their lust of desire;
but this was not the intention of the Meitei tribe
the gang rape of the Kuki tribal women
was a demonstration of their power of vendetta;
it made India feel so shocked
it made everyone to shudder
as they kept asking each other
was it true that Kuki tribal women
were paraded without clothes
and then gang raped while a mob of menfolk
kept watching them, unwilling to help them;
and after this incident sixty days elapsed,
sixty days of injustice lay so concealed
before the cops could go and arrest those men
who had been so horrendous and pitiless;
and now as many voices keep asking for justice
many voices keep making promises
to allot justice to the Kuki tribe women
but their hearts writhe in pain;
and not many will forget the indignity
and the disrepute they faced
as they will store those awful memories
and they will forever remember their sisters
who were gangraped in those fields
of Phainom Village in their Kangpokpi district,
and they will ask themselves-
was this the price their innocent women
had to pay for the ethnic violence
that without any mercy or humanity
they were so humiliated and disgraced;
and our country bows down
and sheds tears of perplexity
as ours is a country so full of reverence
for women everywhere-
whether it is North or the South
whether it is the East or West
or whether it is the North-East
or the South-West,
every woman conserves and preserves her respect.