Monopolising consensus ! Unacceptable ineptness
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 22 2011 -

It is a question of land. There is no debate over this. There will however be claims and counter claims over ownership and in the four Memorandum of Understanding signed by the State Government in 1981, 1992, 1996 and 1998, the question of resolving the Sadar Hills issue rests on the consensus of the peoples concerned. The moot point now is how to come to that consensus, which was agreed upon not once but four times.

It is on the basis of the ‘consensus point’ in the four MoUs that the United Naga Council and the other Naga civil society organisations have voiced their strong stand to any proposal to create a Sadar Hills district on the ground that it would impinge on the territory of the Nagas.

Ancestral land is the backbone of the claim on territory and it on this argument that the opposition to the creation of Sadar Hills district has morphed into the indefinite bandh in Naga areas, effective from August 21 and the full impact of the double blow on the people of Manipur will be felt in the days to come.

Looked at in another way, the claim of the Naga civil society organisations amounts to saying that the Kukis, who form the bulk of the population in Sadar Hills, are later settlers who have been given the permission to settle there as guests of the original owners of the land which in this case are the Nagas.

The Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee on the other hand has been doggedly asserting that Sadar Hills is not meant for any particular community but to ensure administrative convenience which not unsurprisingly has found no takers amongst the Nagas. Whether administrative convenience is the driving force behind the demand or not is something that time will tell.

Consensus is an attractive term and it sounds politically and socially right. However it needs to be kept in mind that the definition or understanding of consensus cannot be the monopoly of anyone or any group of people. It is with this in mind that the issue at hand ought to be approached.

Pessimistic it may sound, but this will probably be too tall an order to follow for the myopia induced by the narrow, dangerous and unhealthy trend of interpreting everything along ethnic division stands close to the stage of crippling and blinding all the faculties which are unique to mankind.

In as much as the question of defining consensus cannot be left to the anti-Sadar Hills district group, the Nagas in this case, it is also equally important that Sadar Hills cannot be the monopoly of any particular community.

The SHDDC has explained that it is not for any particular community and by this it should mean that no community should be targeted while pursuing the demand of districthood. Hauling the Government over the fire by identifying it with any particular community defeats the very stand of the SHDDC. This is where the need to shut up the loud mouths and empty vessels arises.

A blockade is not only about cutting off the supply line of the people but says something about the deliberate act of inflicting wounds and injuries on fellow beings under the garb of pursuing a demand. And the blockade imposed by the SHDDC along the highways dates back to the first day of this month.

Today is the 22nd day. This is unacceptable for it transgresses all known boundaries of civility and violates the basic tenets of democracy on which very basis the demand to upgrade Sadar Hills to a full fledged district has been raised.

This is where the contradiction emerges. Likewise the decision to impose an indefinite bandh in areas under the jurisdiction of Naga civil society organisations from August 21 to oppose any design to bifurcate Naga territories and make way for Sadar Hills district is not acceptable at all.

That the course of action adopted on either side of the Sadar Hills issue is unacceptable will stand the test of time and history, but perhaps the most unacceptable of all is the complete indifference maintained by the State Government all these days.

It is already long past the days of playing around with words and sentences which are nothing but mumbo jumbos and get down to the serious business of studying how to put the wheel of governance on track. That the highways open and close at the fancy and whim of anyone with an agenda or a trumped up cause is a telling story of a Government which has been crippled by inertia and a glaring poverty of ideas and vision.

Trapped between the bandh called by Naga civil society organisations on the one hand and by the SHDDC on the other, the ineptness and sheer indifference of the Government can be seen on the battered bodies of the drivers who had the misfortune of coming under a rain of stones and hand propelled missiles, on the smouldering remains of trucks and Government offices and one the faces of anxious drivers and their helpers as they are directed to turn back from the spots where they were stranded and which are inside the territory of Manipur.

The ineffectiveness of the Government is written in clear cut terms on the long queues seen at petrol pumps, the filled LPG cylinders put up for sale outside shops, tied with a safety chain, the shrivelled vegetables being sold at sky high prices and on the expressions of the people as they move around with their daily chores.

A Government which first blundered or committed itself to a bind of the MoUs and yet remain smug when the riders of the MoUs stand in the way of thrashing out a solution has no business to continue enjoying the perks of power. It is surprising to see that there has been no political churning even at this stage