Complex security situation in NE Extorting on the canvass of peace
- Sangai Express Editorial :: June 08, 2013 -
Complex is the term used by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh while describing the security situation in the North East region during the just concluded Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security.
The reasoning for the Prime Minister's observation is based on three words, 'insurgency, extortion and agitations.
' This is where the term 'confusion' may be added, especially when juxtaposed with the oft repeated and trumpeted slogan of the Government, both at the Centre and the States, that the road map to peace has been charted out with many armed groups coming forward to hold political negotiations.
Leading the pack to the route to peace, as understood in the context of the Government, is the NSCN (IM), which inked a cease fire pact with the Centre way back on August 1, 1997 and then started political dialogues to bring the protracted Naga political issue to its logical conclusion.
Other groups too followed soon, with the NSCN (K) entering into a cease fire pact sometime in the early part of the 2000s and the pro-talk group of the ULFA and the various factions and groups of Bodo militant outfits following suit.
Back home, the Kuki armed groups under the two umbrella organisations of the KNO and the UPF inked the Suspension of Operations pact, followed by other organisations such as the UPPK and factions of the KCP.
Rewind more ten years or so back and this is definitely 'progress' in so far as the call for political dialogues to settle all differences and issues is concerned.
Yet as the Prime Minister himself admitted, insurgency continues and most perplexingly there is no end to the culture of extortions, best exemplified by the numerous cases of bombs and grenades being planted or hurled at the residences of Government officials and businessmen.
Transporters continue to cough up huge amount of money annually, in the name of 'taxes' imposed by armed outfits on the highways.
With so many armed outfits coming to the negotiating table, why should extortion in particular be a component that has gone to make up the 'complex' situation, as understood and underlined by the Prime Minister ?
In more ways than one, this is a damning statement on the reality that has been scripted on the turf of 'peace process' or 'political dialogue'.
A case of the 'complex situation' being wittingly scripted and played out on the canvass of the peace process that has been bandied about and trumpeted as one of the biggest achievements of Delhi and Imphal and of course the security forces.
This is the reality, but a reality which Delhi and Imphal have stoically been refusing to admit.
At best the peace as seen and experienced today is just on paper.
Highway taxes, which are nothing less than open extortions, continue to be levied on all transporters.
The recent development in neighbouring Nagaland, wherein strong voices were raised against the imposition of 'donations' by different armed groups, which are already in peace pacts with the Government of India, should be an important indicator.
The significance of such a development has however failed to register in the consciousness of the people who matter and this is what has made the situation not only 'complex' but also 'confusing'.
The refusal to acknowledge the truth, the closing of the mind, eyes and ears to what is actually happening in the region is what has made the situation here 'complex' and 'confusing.
' If outlawed or proscribed outfits continue with the extortions, then it may not actually fall in the realm of the 'complex' for it is a black and white case.
In short, it is the armed groups which have signed the peace deal with the Government which are largely responsible for the 'complex' situation which the Prime Minister referred to.
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