Sadar Hills imbroglio: Stoking ethnic cauldron ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 18 2011 -

The statistics, the reports say it all. As things stand today, the demand to upgrade Sadar Hills to the status of a district has already exacted a heavy toll.

Four persons have been killed in incidents directly related to the issue at hand while numerous vehicles have been reduced to cinders besides Government offices that fall within the jurisdiction of Sadar Hills.

This is a tragedy and while it is next to impossible to quantify the extent of the damages that have been inflicted all over the place, what is more worrying is the manner in which this issue has been dragged precariously close to the edge of the communal cauldron.

From a demand directed towards the Government, Sadar Hills has gradually metamorphosed into something entirely different and what was primarily an issue between the Government and those championing the demand of district status for Sadar Hills under the Sadar Hills District Demand Committee, the issue has today become a bone of contention between the Kukis and the Nagas.

To the credit of the SHDDC leaders, they have been clear in maintaining that Sadar Hills is not meant for any particular community but is meant for all those residing within the areas that come under Sadar Hills.

This stand not only underlines the primacy of administrative convenience in district formation but also sounds politically correct.

The under current however tells a different story, which is far removed from the stand announced by the SHDDC. With the Nagas under the United Naga Council, All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur, Senapati District Students’ Association, Naga People’s Organisation etc making their stand clear, the ethnic divide that the district demand for Sadar Hills spawns is uncomfortably all too visible.

The loud mouths on either side of the ethnic divide have only made the matter more complex. And as is so often the case, when things take a critical turn, it is the loud mouths, the trouble makers, the empty vessels who come to the forefront and hijack the real issue.

The Sadar Hills issue stands too close to such an uncomfortable possibility and the time is now for either sides to rein in their trouble makers, lest the real issue gets sidelined to be replaced by a stand off between two ethnic groups.

For those who faithfully link up to our internet edition, the heated exchange of words among readers on the issue would not have gone unnoticed.

A debate or differences of idea or opinion is a given on complex issues and as long as the debate or discussion stays within the realm of the acceptable behaviour, then it can be said to go along with the grain. However a line needs to be drawn when the debate crosses the boundary of civility and defeats the dictum of exchanging ideas.

That line needs to be drawn now. Let the political leaders, the historians, the scholars debate over the merit of the claims put up by the two sides.

There is absolutely no business for the wastrels on either side of the divide to pour out their venom and launch ridiculous allegations and accusations against others in the name of debating the issue.

And no, a litmus test will not be deemed necessary to demonstrate that the only thing that these wastrels have is nuisance value and are the least concerned about what happens to the real issue.

To them it is not about Sadar Hills at all, but about pursuing their own agenda and setting the course for a hate campaign.

The manner in which the State Government was lampooned by identifying it with a particular community is a case in point and the more blatant was the tirade launched against the media, again by identifying it with a particular community.

It should be clear to all. Sadar Hills is a not about the demand of a particular community. It is a question of whether a geographical area that comes under what is known as Sadar Hills should be upgraded to the status of a district or not. This should be the bottomline.

Why should an issue that concerns the State Government be morphed into an ethnic issue ? The Naga civil society organisations need to understand that opposing the upgradation of Sadar Hills to a district should not send out the message that it is against an ethnic group.

The matter should be laid before the State Government. There is absolutely no justification in questioning the origin of an ethnic group while opposing the district demand.

After all Sadar Hills is a demand that is raised within the territory of Manipur and not outside.