Issue of Influx :: Government needs to solve it
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: April 17, 2010 -

The Problem with those people at the helm of power in Manipur is their inherent habit of not making earnest effort to solve a problem holistically as soon as it manifests and before it starts creating bigger problems on a larger scale.

In almost every problem, call it issue, that rocked the state, one thing the people have been seeing unfailingly is the rulers’ habit of trying to appease those who rose in agitation demanding solution of the problem/issue and persuade them to discontinue their agitation by partly addressing their grievances.

Thus the agitation would be suspended for the time being, but the problem/issue would remain unsolved, only to re-emerge bigger and worse in future.

To the government, the immediate problem to be solved is to end the agitation, not the real problem. This is exactly what’s been seen over the years in Manipur.

It would seem true that those representatives of the people, who are in the government, are not that serious to solve whatever issues which have been dogging the people of Manipur. Instead they appear to be more serious only in their efforts to end any agitation or protest movement by making promises of fulfilling the agitators’ demands surrounding the problem/issue.

The temporary policies of the past and the present governments had been the key factor for the enduring and prolonged problems the people of Manipur have been unavoidably living with.

As a result, so many issues have been lying unsolved for decades together. Among them, the issues of according status of full-fledged revenue district to Sadar Hills and Jiribam, the foreigners’ and migrants’ influx in Manipur, repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, etc. may be mentioned. Each of the issues is a dormant volcano. Any of these issues may erupt into a full scale war-like agitation any time.

Thus the issue of foreigners and migrants, legal or illegal makes no difference, has been one of the most serious issues of the state.

This issue has seen fierce protest agitation in the seventies and eighties which even claimed several lives. Dozens of student leaders were arrested and imprisoned. Due to the protest agitation, school and college classes and Board and Council examinations were disrupted. Academic careers of thousands of students got disturbed.

Some powerful student bodies and CSOs stir up people’s sentiments on the issue from time to time. These bodies had demanded the Manipur Legislative Assembly to formulate a legislation to stop the never-ending influx of the foreigners and migrants in the state.

The issue used to be brought up in the House by opposition MLAs. However, discussions on the issue were never thorough, and still needs deeper deliberation. Some speeches that turned out to be filibusters, even though it wasn’t meant to be, seemed to throttle the discussion on such a serious issue without arriving at a clear-cut course of action. The issue is still alive.

A lot of unexpected and undesirable things may come about as in the past, or even worse than those of the past. People still remember the killing of 17 migrants from outside Manipur by unknown armed persons in March, 2008, and some others last year.

Many organisations, lawful and unlawful, have also issued strong warning as regards the migrants/foreigners in Manipur. Then the proscribed Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF)’s quit notice to the non-Manipuris before the next month passes still remains. All these threats and warnings cannot be outrightly rejected as hollow “threat.”

Therefore, the present SPF government should try to make honest efforts to solve the issue of migrants.