Manipuri DeadlockThe economic blockade of Manipur is now over a hundred and ten days old. It has been underway for so long that now even the media has tired of reporting on it, and unfortunately, in times when national agenda is set by mainstream TV news channels, in the absence of wall to wall coverage, the Centre is doing nothing about it and no efforts are being made to find out what the State Government there is doing, or not doing to, resolve the situation either.
With every passing hour, the continuation of the blockade grows more absurd and incomprehensible. How is it that in a country where inflation has become a major political issue can a people be made to pay as high as Rs. 250 for a litre of petrol [selling in Sikkim for Rs. 66.55] and upwards of Rs. 1,500 for an LPG refill [available at Rs. 425 in Gangtok]? A forced blockade is something Sikkim understands well, having experienced it often in the hands of the aggressive politics of the neighbouring hill district and the fragility of its roads. Prices shoot up and supplies dry out even with a weekend bandh of NH 31A. Manipur has been cut off for nearly four months now. And yet, there is neither genuine concern nor urgency in how the State and the Centre are responding to the situation. Sikkim knows even this attitude rather well. It took Chinese adventurism along Sikkim’s northern borders to convince Delhi to address the State’s connectivity woes, something which the West Bengal Government is yet to accept. But with a troubled northeastern border state like Manipur cut off from replenishments for as long as the absurdity has been allowed is unfathomable even by the Centre’s traditional nonchalance for small states [size decided by the number of MPs it has in Parliament; Manipur has 3 MPs and a population of nearly 24 lakh]. Some commentators in Manipur and elsewhere are wondering why the Centre is not doing something about the blockade since it is a “national highway” which is being closed. This is an argument Sikkim too used often and met with only limited success. Maybe someone in Manipur should approach the Supreme Court like Sikkim did to ensure that agencies responsible for a national highway did something to keep it open. In the case of Manipur, it is not even just a national highway that has been stalled, NH 39, the road being suffocated, is now officially AH-2 [AH for Asian Highway], a highway which is eventually planned to be part of the trans-Asian highway system.
As to the reason behind the blockade – it started on 01 August with the Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee shutting down NHs 53 and 39 in their demand for a Kuki majority district. They called it off after a written assurance from the Ibobi Singh led Manipur government, only for the United Naga Council (UNC) and All Naga Students’ Association of Manipur (ANSAM) intensifying their counter blockade protesting that the proposed Hills District would take away a major chunk of Naga occupied districts. Even though it is the two tribes in confrontation for now, the stand-off is essentially a hill versus valley divide in Manipur and while such divisions are not rare in our country, the sufferings imposed on the people by the continuation of the blockade behoves an enquiry into why it is being allowed to continue. If UPA can be stared down to roll back petrol prices within days of raising it, how is it that the Manipur Government can sustain the people’s resentment over what is happening there? Some analysts see the failure to un-block the highways as a conscious decision to deepen the communal divide in Manipur. Assembly elections are slated there for early next year and many observers see the continuation of the blockade as resulting not as much from stubborn agitators as from the machinations of vote-bank politics to harden divides and consolidate votes by raising the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ argument to a fever pitch in time for the Assembly elections. This is a very probable explanation because even though everyone is suffering, each group will be blaming the other for it and as the privations of the people increase, their resolve to keep the ‘other’ out from power will grow stronger. That’s an obvious enough political ploy, but if this does grow into a poll-plank, what will unfortunately get pushed to the sidelines is the unanimous resentment of the Manipuri people against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act which has only barely managed to grab some attention in mainstream media. Also lost will be all other local issues which would have attracted attention in the run up to the polls, not to speak of the challenge of insurgency which continues to escape resolution.
With every passing hour, the continuation of the blockade grows more absurd and incomprehensible. How is it that in a country where inflation has become a major political issue can a people be made to pay as high as Rs. 250 for a litre of petrol [selling in Sikkim for Rs. 66.55] and upwards of Rs. 1,500 for an LPG refill [available at Rs. 425 in Gangtok]? A forced blockade is something Sikkim understands well, having experienced it often in the hands of the aggressive politics of the neighbouring hill district and the fragility of its roads. Prices shoot up and supplies dry out even with a weekend bandh of NH 31A. Manipur has been cut off for nearly four months now. And yet, there is neither genuine concern nor urgency in how the State and the Centre are responding to the situation. Sikkim knows even this attitude rather well. It took Chinese adventurism along Sikkim’s northern borders to convince Delhi to address the State’s connectivity woes, something which the West Bengal Government is yet to accept. But with a troubled northeastern border state like Manipur cut off from replenishments for as long as the absurdity has been allowed is unfathomable even by the Centre’s traditional nonchalance for small states [size decided by the number of MPs it has in Parliament; Manipur has 3 MPs and a population of nearly 24 lakh]. Some commentators in Manipur and elsewhere are wondering why the Centre is not doing something about the blockade since it is a “national highway” which is being closed. This is an argument Sikkim too used often and met with only limited success. Maybe someone in Manipur should approach the Supreme Court like Sikkim did to ensure that agencies responsible for a national highway did something to keep it open. In the case of Manipur, it is not even just a national highway that has been stalled, NH 39, the road being suffocated, is now officially AH-2 [AH for Asian Highway], a highway which is eventually planned to be part of the trans-Asian highway system.
As to the reason behind the blockade – it started on 01 August with the Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee shutting down NHs 53 and 39 in their demand for a Kuki majority district. They called it off after a written assurance from the Ibobi Singh led Manipur government, only for the United Naga Council (UNC) and All Naga Students’ Association of Manipur (ANSAM) intensifying their counter blockade protesting that the proposed Hills District would take away a major chunk of Naga occupied districts. Even though it is the two tribes in confrontation for now, the stand-off is essentially a hill versus valley divide in Manipur and while such divisions are not rare in our country, the sufferings imposed on the people by the continuation of the blockade behoves an enquiry into why it is being allowed to continue. If UPA can be stared down to roll back petrol prices within days of raising it, how is it that the Manipur Government can sustain the people’s resentment over what is happening there? Some analysts see the failure to un-block the highways as a conscious decision to deepen the communal divide in Manipur. Assembly elections are slated there for early next year and many observers see the continuation of the blockade as resulting not as much from stubborn agitators as from the machinations of vote-bank politics to harden divides and consolidate votes by raising the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ argument to a fever pitch in time for the Assembly elections. This is a very probable explanation because even though everyone is suffering, each group will be blaming the other for it and as the privations of the people increase, their resolve to keep the ‘other’ out from power will grow stronger. That’s an obvious enough political ploy, but if this does grow into a poll-plank, what will unfortunately get pushed to the sidelines is the unanimous resentment of the Manipuri people against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act which has only barely managed to grab some attention in mainstream media. Also lost will be all other local issues which would have attracted attention in the run up to the polls, not to speak of the challenge of insurgency which continues to escape resolution.
Dear Editor,
ReplyDeleteOf late I am reading with interest the coverage that Sikkim is getting in Himalaya Darpan.
Usually the news in this paper-like any other local rag, including yours-is predictable.
However in the past few issues of this Marwari owned newspaper, there have been some interesting coverage of dissent in Sikkim.
There was one which highlighted the biased patronisation that the IPR had been rendering to certain Sikkim Newspapers visa vi their allocation of advertisements.
The fact that the official response to a RTI query on the matter did not make any mention of the allocations to a popular TV channel was also highlighted in the said report.
I think Himalaya Darpan- since it is perhaps the only 'local' newspaper that survives on its own mettle - is in a fair enough position to call a spade a spade.
Today's issue reported with some force about some bloke who went to visit P.S. Golay and came out all the worse for it. There have also been some fairly consistent reportage on the untidy executive versus the judiciary wrangling over the Melli house sealing episode.
Things that we expect NOW to cover but so far hasn't because of the aforementioned reasons implied in that reference to Himalaya Darpan.