UNC's stand : No surprise package :: Take out the blockade sting
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 02 2011 -

The decision of the United Naga Council to oppose the agreement inked between the State Government and the Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee should not surprise anyone, who has been following the finer points of all the issues surrounding the question of upgrading Sadar Hills to the status of a full fledged district.

The pivot on which the SHDDC pact was signed on November 1, 12 am, is the clause that district status would be granted to Sadar Hills after the District Re-organisation Committee submits its report to the State Government.

That the DRC would cut no ice with the UNC and the Senapati based Naga People's Organisation is borne by the fact that these two organisations did not turn up for the public hearing conducted by the DRC some time back. Moreover the UNC and the other Naga civil society organisations, particularly the All Naga Students' Association, Manipur had minced no words in asserting that the Nagas should be taken into confidence if any agreement is to be reached on the question of granting district status on Sadar Hills.

Taken these realities into consideration, the decision of the UNC to tighten their stranglehold on the National Highways should not be a bolt from the blue. That the Naga civil society organisations in Manipur, under the UNC, would do something after October 19, the day on which the deadline for the Alternative Arrangement model was served on the Centre, was anticipated and the latest development can be seen as an extension of the demand raised during the Naga People's Convention at Senapati on July 1, 2010.

At the moment, the UNC has decided to intensify the ongoing counter-blockade (this may be a misnomer, given the fact that the SHDDC has suspended its economic blockade now) with a three day total bandh in Naga areas from November 3.

What will happen in the next few days is uncertain and while it would be hazardous to read the tea leaf at the moment, two likely developments may be anticipated.

For one, the visit of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will become more significant, scheduled as he is to land at Imphal today (November 2) and while the earlier agenda of his visit will remain, it would be interesting to see how he responds to the latest development and it is anyone's guess whether he can convince the UNC that blockading the National Highways is not the way to air a grievance.

Secondly, Manipur may be in for another long spell of economic blockade, making the decision of the SHDDC to roll back its agitation redundant, at least to the common people, who were hit hard by the more than 90 days economic blockade.

Truly Manipur's cup of woes is running over. Highway politics or blockade politics has been practised, polished, perfected and upgraded to the form of an art in the last seven/eight years so much so that the benefits of a National Highway running through one's backyard has come to be calculated in terms of how effectively one can cut it off anytime and on any issue.

This is the reality and it has come to stay and while the people in general have come to accept this as something inevitable, what stands out like a sore thumb is the utter failure of the State Government to read the writings on the wall and act accordingly.

As long as the Greater Lim demand hangs over the head of Manipur, highway blockades will continue to haunt the people and play truant with the lifelines of everyone. That there is no magic formula for the Lim issue is a given, but this is no reason why the Government should not wise up to the fact that the best way to blunt its effect on the people and Manipur is to stop depending on only one or two lifelines.

The UNC has already gone ahead and stated that work at the Imphal-Jiribam rail line should cease during the total bandh period and the explicitly stated implicit point should be clear to all. All lifelines connecting Manipur to the outside world can be closed down at its fancy and whims.

Apart from dialogue and thrashing out all issues on the negotiating table, the other effective step to counter such a 'policy' is to build as many lifelines as possible. This is the reason why The Sangai Express has been concentrating on the development of NH-37.

This is the reason why there are pressing needs to develop Old Cachar road or Tongjei Maril and Thinungei-Jiribam route to the status of National Highways. Blockades are imposed because it is effective.

One sure shot approach to take away this effectiveness is to connect Manipur with the outside world with as many lifelines as possible.

Connectivity is the key word to take the sting out of the devil in economic blockades. The question that can be asked is what has the present dispensation done in the ten years it has been in office ?

Nothing, if one looks at the joke that is being played out on the Imphal-Jiribam route. Blaming the Border Roads Organisation would be missing the woods for the trees.