Time for Manipuris to be united

Ingobi Ningthoujam *

Today Manipur is in turmoil. Due to the incompetent leaderships of our previous and present spineless government, a few separatist groups with short-sighted narrow visions are trying their best to break Manipur into micro-states for the so-called mono-ethnic groups. It is worth mentioning here that America, Britain, India, China etc etc are all multi-ethnic states/countries. In fact, not even a single state/country on this planet is a mono-ethnic. So, Creating a pure mono-ethnic state is rather hypothetical. In this real physical world, the term pure/absolute has no meaning, all are just relative. So it is better that one should give up the very idea of creating a state for a single ethnic group.

Well, it is a crystal clear fact that a majority of our leaders till today are self-centred power hungry people. But we should not give up hope for a resurgent Manipur.

First of all, our people should be made rational through proper education so that voters would not become saleable at election time. Then surely only the genuine competent persons would represent us in the Assembly, the highest law-making forum. In that scenario, Delhi would be compelled to respect any resolution passed by the Manipur Assembly. So we should have patience and reserve some space in our mind for accommodating other's points of view for the sake of a better Manipur.

Representatives of national Political parties in Manipur will never be able to muster enough courage to act against the wishes of their political bosses in New Delhi. Recently we have noticed that even when they could manage to do something to respect the sentiments of the common people, like the one that supporting the issue of ILPS, it had very quickly turned out to be a perfunctory /hoax because majority of them are generally crooked sycophant politicians not bothering for the mango-people.

Hence our present set of political parties is not competent enough to protect the interest of Manipur. So we Manipuris belonging to various different ethnic groups should be united and form a strong Regional political Party dedicated to Manipur. A constructive change is the need of the hour now. Our revered intellectuals should be directly or indirectly involved while forming the party. Also merit should be the sole criteria for selecting leadership of the party.

Being Manipuris, we are always proud of Lourembam Khongnangthba, Konok Thengra, kabui Salang Maiba, Vir Tikendrajeet, Thangal general, Paona Brajabashi, Haipou Jadonang and many others. Today also, we have plenty of intellectuals amongst us. They should no longer remain fence-sitters. They are being solicited to start writing on the walls for a united and resurgent Manipur. As a thought example we can say that inspite of being completely different from each other, proton, neutron, and electron form a stable atom under certain conditions. Exactly in the same way Meitei, Tribal and Pangal has formed a stable State called Manipur. Once if peace comes, Manipur would become the Switzerland of Asia.

Today all the sub-systems under the Govt of Manipur are certainly malfunctioning. It is also wildly believed that formation of the Congress Govt in Manipur has been made possible by manipulating selective EVMs employed in the constituencies where just after the election the Congress candidates have been projected for losing the election. For tempering the EVMs, one does not have to break into the strong room. If certain data are provided, EVMs can be remotely manipulated in favour of a particular candidate.

All the relevant data were with the concerned authorities of Manipur govt. Perhaps manipulation could have been done with the knowledge of Delhi to pre-empt the very threat of Congress being nullified by anti-Congress forces. Logically Congress does not have the mandate to rule Manipur. However it is still survived simply because Congress led UPA Govt is in Delhi.

No doubt Manipur Govt is anti-people. It has recently appointed four MLAs as parliamentary secretaries by violating the provision under Article 164 of Constitution. The appointment has increased the whole size in the exchequer. Legally it can be challenged in a court of law. Some legal expert should have challenged it. When Goa govt under the then CM Digambar Kamat had appointed two MLAs as Parliamentary Secretaries, it had been challenged by Mr. Rodrigues, an activist-lawyer.

Ultimately the then Bombay High Court Chief Justice Swatanar Kumar and Justice N.A. Brito had quashed the unconstitutional appointment in 2009. It is also worth to be mentioned here that in a similar way Tarun Gogoi's Assam Govt had also passed a bill, but, it is still pending before the courts. Parliamentary Secretaries are, in fact, ministers. So it should not be permissible to appoint Parliamentary Secretaries by adopting an indirect method to defeat the golden figure by giving it a different nomenclature of the so called Parliamentary Secretaries.

Now a reliable source says that Assembly Business Advisory Committee has decided to hold the much awaited Winter session for only two ways (i.e. 19,20/12/12). This unsubstantiated crooked decision proves that the puppet Govt is doing all possible things to avoid the undefendable attacks from the opposition taking the critical issues that are burning Manipur today. Anyway in Assembly opposition MLAs should raise the issue of Agri-Minister Md. Abdul Nasir's "Goondaic" action vividly displayed during the Sangai Festival. However if Md Nasir wants to demonstrate that being a law-maker he can violate the law, we do reject it and he should be penalized according to the law.

Now under the prevailing demographic situation in Manipur,implementation of ILPS would be beneficial for Manipuris. History told us that while Manipur was an independent Kingdom/State the permit system was an integral part of its administration. Even after Manipur (because of its strategic location) had been annexed into India under duress on 15 10 49, the permit system was still alive in Manipur.

Then with a long term strategy of diluting Manipuris, the then Chief Commissioner of Manipur at the instance of Delhi had had abolished the permit system on 18.11.50. Hence today, if we demand reimplementation of ILPS, it is justified. However, the Union Home Mininter, Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde, is very happily parroting , " Implementation of ILPS in Manipur is unconstitutional". Mr Shinde should have understood that the provision of Indian Constitiution is amendable and has already been amended 145 times earlier. Also ILPS that is supposed to be unconstitutional in Manipur as per Mr Sushil Kr Shinde is being implemented in our neighbouring states. Is the Constitution not applicable in these states? If the present Home Minister is so inconsistent, what could be the future of..?

One of the most disappointing episode is that inspite of having been taken our much publicised rally for demanding re-implementation of ILPS to JANTAR-MANTAR, the courtyard of Delhi on 25.11.12, Delhi still continues refusing to acknowledge it. When Mr Rahul Gandhi, the alleged Prince of Delhi, came to Manipur on 10.12.12, he intentionally did not mention anything about ILPS. Nor the puppet Govt could extract any commitment from him.

However he did not forget to play a political gimmick by announcing at Hapta Kangjeibung that, "Manipur is the centre of India while he was in Manipur." Who was he trying to fool-the audience or the host? He also said corrupted people have no place in Congress party. However, Manipur Congress is full of corrupted persons. While on his way back home, he had snacks on roadside just before the Tulihal Airport.

Apart from causing much inconvenience to the commuters along the Tidim Road, and being a little ignominious to the host, what was the benefit of his snacking on the roadside? Just after sitting in his return flight, perhaps he must have forgotten whatever he had said at Hapta Kangjeibung. The gist of the points is that, as usual Delhi does not bother about what is going on in and around Manipur. At the same time, Delhi will never give its consent to hold a democratic plebiscite in Manipur.

At times Delhi used to coax one ethnic group against the other or the vice versa, adopting the British Legacy of Divide and Rule Policy. Today, we do realise that Delhi will never respect our sentiments. The issue might be the transferring of Kabo-Valley to Burma or may be that of territorial integrity of Manipur or repealing of AFSPA(1958), the bitter truth is that Delhi has always tactfully kept its micro puppet Govt in Manipur out of the loop whenever they have to take an important/sensitive decision regarding Manipur.

It would not be an exaggeration if we say that their lethargic attitude towards Manipur is the prime cause of mushrooming various separatist groups in Manipur. North eastern region, particularly Manipur, has always been discriminated. If our Iron Lady, Ms Irom Sharmila was from mainland India, her name would have been considered for the Peace Nobel Prize.

Anyway, the world has started recognising her unputdownable activities inspite of the impenetrable shielding imposed around her. Now it is a matter of time to see how long Delhi and its puppet Govt in Manipur would be able to suppress the genuine pro-human activities of Ms Sharmila. Let us move forward with the confidence in our mind that peace will come in Manipur and a resurgent Manipur is in the offing.