Muivah effect in Manipur

Bikash Sarmah *

Thanks to the obduracy of NSCN (I-M) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah, a Tangkhul Naga born in Somdal village of Manipur's Ukhrul district, the State had been on the boil ever since he announced his decision to visit his ancestral village.

Manipur was strongly opposed to Muivah's proposed visit because
1) the ceasefire with the NSCN (I-M) did not extend to the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur that Muivah would include in Nagalim — a greater Nagaland comprising the present State of Nagaland and the Naga-inhabited areas of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, and

2) any visit by Muivah to the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur would have the potential of inciting new ethnic rifts and consequent unrest and violence. However, Muivah was tenacious about his visit and set out for Somdal, which resulted in police firing at the Mao Gate on the Nagaland-Manipur border on May 6 as the Manipur police tried to control the agitated Muivah supporters. This led to the death of two Naga youth. Though Muivah was forced to stop his journey, the scars had already deepened.

On May 10, Muivah lambasted the Centre for having failed to muster courage to solve the Naga problem. He said that New Delhi had ''neither courage nor wisdom'' to resolve the impasse.

The following day, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio shot off a missive to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, requesting him to clarify New Delhi's stand on the Naga rebel leader's proposed visit to his native village in Manipur. ''The extremely volatile situation has the potential of spreading out to all other areas of Nagaland and Manipur. It can also adversely affect the relations between Nagaland and Manipur and also jeopardize the Naga peace talks,'' wrote Rio.

He held the ''unwarranted and unjustified demand of the Manipur government to deny Muivah his birthright of visiting his native village in Ukhrul district for a peaceful purpose of meeting his own tribe after decades of absence'' responsible for the volatile situation. The Nagaland Chief Minister added that ''Muivah had planned his visit with prior approval from the Centre'' and that ''the Union Home Ministry had instructed both Nagaland and Manipur governments to make necessary arrangements, including security cover, for Muivah's proposed visit to Somdal''.

In retaliation for the death of two Naga youths due to police firing at Mao, Muivah's supporters blocked National Highway 39, causing an acute paucity of essential commodities in the Imphal valley.

To end the crisis, on May 12, Union Home Secretary GK Pillai, along with Naga peace interlocutor RS Pandey and the Nagaland Chief Minister, held a nearly 90-minute closed-door meeting with Muivah in Viswema village in Nagaland, where the NSCN(I-M) general secretary had been camping to visit Somdal.

After the meeting, Pandey said that the Centre had asked Muivah to postpone his visit till the situation became normal, and added that New Delhi would continue to talk with ''all concerned'' to break the impasse. Muivah expressed his hope that the Centre would resolve the crisis soon. The Nagaland Chief Minister described the meeting as ''cordial''. Pillai and Pandey also met the Nagaland Governor, other Nagaland ministers and Naga Hoho representatives. In Imphal, the duo held parleys with Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and his ministerial colleagues.

However, the deadlock could not be broken. Senior NSCN (I-M) leader VS Atem blamed Manipur for the problem. He said that Muivah would go ahead with his visit if New Delhi failed to break the deadlock. He called the crisis ''a creation of the Manipur Government and the Government of India'', and claimed that the Centre had ''happily'' given consent to Muivah's Somdal sojourn. ''We've come halfway. We'll go ahead,'' he added.

On the other hand, on May 11, without waiting for the outcome of the Centre-Muivah meeting of May 12, the Manipur People's Party (MPP) — the State's oldest regional political outfit — had already decided to uphold its decision to oppose the permission given to Muivah by the Centre to visit Somdal.

The MPP working committee branded Muivah ''a criminal, an extortionist and a man who sows the seeds of distrust among all communities to disintegrate Manipur''. It also decided to mount pressure on Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to rescind the decision to allow Muivah to enter Manipur.

On May 17, due to the continued blockade of National Highway 39 connecting the Brahmaputra valley to the Myanmarese plains by Muivah's supporters in Nagaland, Manipur was forced to airlift food and other essential items from Guwahati, while Muivah remained obstinate about his Somdal plan. An NSCN (I-M) functionary said that ''Muivah, who has been camping in Viswema in Nagaland since May 5, is keen on visiting Somdal'' and ''no one can prevent him from visiting his ancestral home after four decades''.

The issue was not whether Muivah could not even visit his very birthplace. In its editorial on the issue, The Sentinel (May 15, 2010), one of the most authoritative dailies of the northeastern region, published from Guwahati, elucidated thus: ''The current imbroglio is not just about a rebel leader's desire to visit his birthplace after being away for about four decades. Somdal is in that part of Manipur that Muivah would include in that proposed grandiose political enterprise called Nagalim, comprising the present State of Nagaland and Naga-inhabited areas of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

Manipur, justifiably, is opposed to the expansionist road map, as are the other two neighbouring States too. Secondly, Muivah's would not be an ordinary visit. He would not merely be responding to nostalgia. He would primarily be with his ethno-political constituency — people from his community settled in Manipur — as part of the Nagalim campaign. Since the Ibobi Singh government of Manipur is aware of the dangerous consequences that could follow, it has proscribed the Naga rebel leader from visiting Somdal.

Let it be very clear that it is not a question of Muivah's right to visit his ancestral village; it is a question of a law-and-order perception stemming from Muivah's plan to visit a State that he seeks to split in accordance with his Nagalim vision — it is a question, therefore, of whether a State is wrong if it is only trying to protect itself! Neither the Manipur Government nor the Manipuris opposed to Muivah's presence in the Naga-inhabited areas of their State can be faulted.''

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in a zealous bid to appease Muivah and his outfit, gave him a green signal to visit Somdal without seeking the approval of the Manipur Government, which had valid reasons to oppose Muivah's programme. That Manipur ought to have been taken into confidence, need not be overemphasized.

Going by what a senior MHA official told the press after the meeting between Muivah and Pillai, the Union Home Secretary had to assuage the NSCN (IM) general secretary's feeling of hurt by citing the Constitutional provision of law and order as a State subject and explain that a State could deny anyone access to any part of its territory if it apprehended that the access would create a law-and-order problem. But why was that explanation not given earlier?

It is clear that the Centre had already blundered before realizing the folly of permitting Muivah to enter Manipur without seeking the consent of the Manipur Government. It must now dawn on New Delhi that a short-term policy of appeasement of the NSCN (I-M) leadership to effect a semblance of peace is in the interest of none.

Peace must be durable for it to be meaningful, and cannot be at the cost of the territorial integrity of a neighbouring State. If the Centre has still not understood that fact of life, it has understood nothing in the matter of the NSCN's Nagalim road map —that it is unacceptable to the three neighbouring States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.