NH 53 and Trans Asian Highway

Sanjay Akoijam *

O Ibobi for once took a right decision in defying an arrogant and high handed crash message from the Central Home Ministry. But Ibobi was also the CM when the NSF and NSCN-IM affiliated organisations blockaded NH-39 just a few years back. The precedent for Air-dropping supplies by the IAF was there. The bill for this air-dropping supplies, the whole state of Manipur paid by way of deductions from the State share etc.

So it will not be a precedent that New Delhi would rub salt to injury by making the State pay up with interest again to the Home Ministry for this largesse. That Ibobi and his government did not learn the lesson from the last blockade has come back to hurt the people more.

NH-53 was forgotten the moment the blockade was lifted from NH-39. Various insurgent groups also made development of NH-53 a difficult task with all their demands and extortions. This time too, with the unending blockade on NH-39, the focus has again shifted to NH-53, or rather its pitiable condition, long stretches of which are not in motorable condition, forget about strikes from any underground group on the route. Any government of the day should not be too weak to face any underground group(s) that tries to disrupt the National Highway running inside its own State.

Let the government show the way to develop NH-53 and get rid of our over dependence on NH-39. Let us complete construction of NH-53 to make it viable if not exemplary. Let us make it the natural route to connect Silchar to the Trans National Highway. NH-39 and its dependence on passing through Nagaland is too risky from any perspective.

We have been enriching the Nagaland government and NSCN-IM for far too long by our over dependence on NH-39. Each truck and bus plying through this route and paying thousands of rupees per annum as both legal and illegal taxes to Nagaland government and NSCN-IM has not satiated thier greed and we have helped feed them. When Manipur trucks and buses start using NH-39 less and less, the coffers of NSCN-IM would dry-up, steadily but surely.

You see, the likes of Muivah and Swu will never understand that you cannot create imaginary homelands by creating a lot of bad blood for the Nagas across the whole northeast and beyond.

I may be paranoid, but these days I would be afraid to call any of my naga friends for a visit to my home, lest Muivah and Co. start claiming my home as part of Nagalim. NSCN-IM and Taliban are not too different from each other. Each swears to destroy anything they consider have caused them to be backward. The Taliban threatens to bomb the World Cup in South Africa. Only God knows why.

Likewise, the NSCN-IM and its supporters swear they will destroy Manipur. The NSCN-IM and its supporters will never introspect and try to build a better future for their own communities, but only blame everyone else for their backwardness. They still have the mental state of living in the stone age literally, and looking at everyone with suspicion. How else do you explain NSCN-IM killing SDO Kishan and his staff with stones?

To the Honorable Home Minister of India, Muivah's visit to his home is a simple homecoming for someone wanting to visit his ancestral home. How about late LTTE chief Prabhakaran visiting his forefather's birthplace in Tamil Nadu with a Tamil Eelam in his agenda?

Would the Honorable Home Minister still call it a simple homecoming to his ancestral home? But then, what is P. Chidambaram doing with the Home Ministry portfolio is something one can never understand. He is just not cut out for this job. Perhaps we should now call him Public Cartoon or Politician Cartoon instead of PC. Take your pick.

PC or LK Advani, there is too much double standard always played by the Centre. Nobody in the Centre cares if our national Highways are choked. It is illegal to do so and it is the Centre's responsibility to take action against the NSF hoodlums and the Nephiu Rio's government.

So what about all of us sacrificing something each to build the alternative NH-53 and also NH-150. Let us not keep on relying on the Centre to develop this highway for us. O Ibobi and his Cabinet colleagues can show us the way. He and his men can contribute 6 months salary each for building NH-53 on a war footing.

It would be great if each Government employee who went on a long strike to get the 6th pay are able to contribute a month's salary. Would all the power centers in the State contribute their might in building this highway and not obstructing it?

Are we so poor as a State to not be able to develop even a single highway? Are all our top bureacrats and Government too incompetent and corrupt to even realize such a project sincerely? Or are they just plain stupid and waiting for the next blockade from NSF and Nagaland?