TODAY -
Rites Of Passage
The Telegraph | Editorial | 1 Dec, 2011
A visit by a prime minister or an important politician can sometimes make a difference to the lives of the ordinary people in a distant land. For the people of Manipur, the forthcoming visit of the two most important public figures in India — Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi — to the state brings a reprieve from a long ordeal. It has prompted the United Naga Council to suspend its four-month-long blockade of the two highways that link the state to the rest of the country.
The more remarkable thing is that the blockade has been allowed to continue for so long. Clearly, the government of Okram Ibobi Singh was powerless to persuade the UNC to lift the blockade or come to the rescue of the suffering people in some other way. It is difficult to imagine a more glaring example of the abdication of its constitutional authority by a government.
Governments in the Northeast often have to balance the conflicting interests of different ethnic groups. In Manipur, any unilateral decision by the government on the controversial Sadar Hills issue could lead to avoidable ethnic tensions. But then, holding an entire population to ransom with the help of an economic blockade can have no political or moral legitimacy.
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* This Post is uploaded on December 01, 2011
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