Flogging Govt over junked session : FA and growing tension
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 20 2018 -
The Naga political negotiation underway between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India is serious, very serious to all the stakeholders.
Apart from Nagaland and New Delhi, it is obvious that Manipur too is a key stakeholder and so are the other two States neighbouring Nagaland-Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
This is precisely the reason why there is so much tension in the air whenever the Framework Agreement inked between New Delhi and the NSCN (IM) comes up.
All the more reason why care should be taken to ensure that loose talks do not do the round to sow more seeds of suspicion and confusion in the minds of the people.
No one knows what the Framework Agreement is all about, thus leading more to the air of suspicion and confusion and this cannot be good for anyone.
Yet at the same time, the BJP led NDA Government at New Delhi has more than made it clear that it is not going to divulge anything about the Framework Agreement until the final pact is inked and introduced in Parliament.
And so it is that the people of Manipur seem to be in a heightened sense of uncertainty and the reason why the Congress and now the UCM have gone hammer and tongs against the BJP led Government at Imphal for failing to convene the scheduled August 16 session of the Assembly to discuss the Framework Agreement and other related topics.
The explanation from the Government at Imphal that there is no pressing need to convene the Assembly session obviously has no takers and this can be easily gauged from the manner in which the UCM and the Congress have reacted.
One hopes that the stand of the Government that there is no pressing need stands true, or else Manipur can certainly see stormy, very stormy days ahead.
The veil of secrecy over the Framework Agreement.
The recent admission of Interlocutor to the peace talk RN Ravi that some arrangements such as Article 371A may be made for Naga dominated areas in Manipur and the point that something has to be given to the NSCN (IM) after all these years of political negotiations have all gone together to fuel speculations and tension in the State.
This is the reason why no one should be seen to be sleeping over the matter.
The BJP led Government at Imphal may see and understand this point, but so far not much seem to have been done to convey the message that they are indeed very concerned over the air of suspicion that has been kicked up by the Framework Agreement.
It is in line with this that the slogans of so many civil society organisations, which have all stood by a united Manipur, have shifted from merely ‘territorial integrity of Manipur’ to ‘no messing with the administrative mechanisms of the State or no to any design to create a State within a State.’
How much this has impressed the Centre remains to be seen but it is important that the stand of the people is effectively conveyed to the Centre.
And to effectively convey this, the BJP, Congress, the Left and all political parties and the different CSOs need to come together and strike a united stand.
It is best left to the BJP led Government here to formulate how it brings the different entities under one roof and under one slogan.
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