TODAY -
'If Manipur had 12 MPs instead of two, we'd have been wooed'
Times of India | Nov 14, 2011, 12.00AM IST:
Pradip Phanjoubam is editor-proprietor ofImphal Free Press - and living in Manipur while it's under siege. Speaking with Jyoti Punwani , Phanjoubam describes how people are managing with a blockade that's crossed 100 days - and how the state failed Manipur again:
It's been 100 days and an end to the blockade doesn't seem in sight - how has life in Manipur been?
The shortage of gas and fuel has been tough. Since Manipur is still largely an agrarian society, we all have rice and vegetables, no one's going hungry. So, tempers remain down - but once the stocks of fuel run out and school buses go off the roads, the pinch will be felt...The government should have clamped down when the blockade started. The CM should have simply applied the Supreme Court ruling on highways being out of bounds for agitators, asked the Centre to send extra forces or used the army to clear the highway. He should have convinced MLAs to tell their people this won't be allowed - given even a hint, the agitators would have refrained.
Diverse governments have ruled at the Centre, not one made a difference to Manipur. Do Manipuris feel frustrated?
If Manipur had 12 MPs instead of two, we would have been wooed. But as long as democracy remains a numbers game, minority voices will remain unheard. And when your democratic voice is not heard, you resort to undemocratic methods. That's the prime reason for the insurgency - it's a language that's heard.
But Manipuris are now learning Hindi, sending their kids to Delhi, buying houses there. They cheer for India now that there are Manipuris in the national teams. It's no longer someone else's story. The Centre must ensure the northeast's participation in nation-building. Currently, there's nothing taught about the northeast in our history textbooks; we feel we are studying someone else's history. There's also the question of the image of 'an Indian' - we don't fit that image.
Finally, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) debate is focussed on Kashmir today but the prime minister had promised to repeal AFSPA in Manipur - in 2004. How do people feel about that?
Our demand is, tag AFSPA to the democratic legal system, make the army accountable. If an innocent gets killed by the police, you can go to the local MLA, the CM, to court. If you're killed by the army, you feel helpless since AFSPA gives it immunity. Civil law is supposed to be above the army. The commander-in-chief of the army is a civil leader and now, a woman. When the army objects to AFSPA being removed, it is saying "we don't recognise civil rule".
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* This Post is uploaded on November 14 2011
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