Apprehensions before final pact : Reach out to neighbouring States
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 14 2018 -
Taking the assurance of the Union Government at face value, one may rest be assured that the final outcome of the ongoing peace talk between New Delhi and the NSCN (IM) will not affect the territorial integrity of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The BJP led Government at Imphal may take comfort in this but what happens if the agreement contains something like the extension of Article 371 A or if any special provision is worked upon and passed in Parliament seeking to give some special status to areas dominated by the Nagas in Manipur and the other two States ?
Will the BJP led Government here accept such a model ?
This question is raised in the backdrop of the fact that the BJP Government here in Imphal is supping with the Naga People’s Front which has always batted for Nagalim or integration of all Naga inhabited areas under one administrative unit.
The question raised here may be dismissed on the ground that the final outcome of the peace negotiation is yet to be announced, but this should not mean that the State Government should rest easy on this presumption.
Remember June 14, 2001 when the phrase ‘ceasefire without territorial limits’ was suddenly inserted in the ceasefire agreement between New Delhi and the Naga outfit.
With the Government of Nagaland again calling for the integration of all Naga inhabited areas under one administrative unit, the task ahead of the people of Manipur and the two other States is laid out.
And this is where the different civil society organisations of Manipur which go by the territorial integrity of Manipur need to walk together with the State Government and devise plans to fight any model that may affect the interests of Manipur.
Has the State Government made any efforts to reach out to the Government of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh to strike a united stand ?
This is a point which The Sangai Express had stressed on more than one occasion when Manipur was under the Congress and the party was in power too at Guwahati and Itanagar.
Would help if the three States can come together and put up a joint stand before New Delhi.
It however stands that if some model, such as greater autonomy to areas inhabited by the Nagas is worked out, Manipur stands to be affected the most. Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are geographically big States and giving autonomy to a small part of the State may be acceptable.
But when more than half the size of the State is to be given autonomy or any sort of administrative mechanism that by passes the State Government, then this defeats the idea of Manipur as a geo-political reality.
This fact must have also registered in the minds of New Delhi and it is this reality which should not be lost when the final pact is signed.
The younger generation of Nagas may not identity themselves with Manipur, but it would be wrong to say that this is the “unique history of the Nagas,” for the older generations definitely did identify themselves with Manipur with even many Tangkhul elders able to read Manipuri or Meiteilon (written in the Bengali script).
The fact that something will have to be given to the NSCN (IM) stands, but New Delhi should minutely study to see what will be acceptable to Manipur.
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