Separate budgets for the Nagas under AA :: Standing at a cross road
- Sangai Express Editorial :: October 10 , 2013 -

Separate budgets for the Nagas of Manipur under the Alternative Arrangement mooted by the United Naga Council.

So what is wrong or right with it ?

To the UNC and other Naga frontal organisations which have been raising the banner of Alternative Arrangement for the Nagas of Manipur outside the Government of Manipur, everything is right with this demand, while to the State Government and to those who stand by the geo-political reality called Manipur, nothing is right with this demand.

How Delhi responds or views the demand put up by the UNC to the 14th Finance Commission team, which recently visited Manipur, remains to be seen, but what is clear is that the UNC seems to know where to press the button and take their demand to a higher plane.

A State within a State or a separate administrative arrangement for certain areas within the State of Manipur.

This is the underlining point in the demand for an Alternative Arrangement for the Nagas of Manipur, pending a final settlement to the political dialogue between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM).

Such an arrangement may be within the ambit of the Constitution of India, as understood in the provisions provided by the 6th Schedule, but then again it also stands true that each State is unique in its own ways and what may be applicable to a State like Assam need not necessarily work in a State like Manipur.

With numerous cartographers at work, each drawing their version of homeland or territory, it should be clear that the Alternative Arrangement will cover more than two thirds of the territorial area of Manipur.

Autonomy within a State should be understood in the context of its area too. The area under the BTADC in Assam covers just a fraction of the total geographical area of Assam. Hence it may work there.

Juxtapose this situation in a place like Manipur, which has a territory of only 22,327 square kilometres and it would certainly not make sense to grant autonomy to a greater part of the geographical areas of a State.

On the other hand it would make more sense for the valley area, which constitute just a fraction of the total geographical area of Manipur to raise the banner of autonomy !

Competing forces on land and resources, with three major players, the Nagas, the Kukis and the Meiteis.

While the Meiteis are the dominant community they have the right to settle in only a fraction of the total area of the State of Manipur.

The Nagas and Kukis are definitely the minorities, but they have the right to settle in any part of the State but yet at the same time feel short changed, since the Meitei community get to send 40 MLAs in the House of 60.

Enough reason for the different ethnic groups to emerge as competing forces, instead of working towards a goal where rooms for grievances can be minimised to a great extent.

Something, somewhere has gone wrong down the years or decades, but the tragedy is instead of sitting down together and studying how not to get bogged down by historical baggages, each ethnic group is intent on falling back on these historical baggages to pursue their own agenda.

The demand raised by a certain section of the Meitei community that the Scheduled Tribe status should be conferred on them may also be seen through this prism.

Not a question of whether it is wrong or right, but a question of looking back.

There is nothing wrong in looking back, provided it serves as the guiding light towards the future but when this further promotes the idea of ‘competing forces’ then some serious self introspection may be what the doctors would prescribe.

Different budgets for the Nagas under the Alternative Arrangement demand, Kuki State demand, ST status demand for Meiteis.

Clearly Manipur today stands at a cross road.