Targeting the common people Curse of economic blockades
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 12 2016 -

School van services suspended. Petrol pumps dry. Potatoes sold at Rs 35-40 per kg and many other essential items unavailable in the market.

Serpentine queues in front of all bank branches to exchange the demonetised Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes with other legal tenders and clearly the woes of the people can only be imagined.

While the long queues will only be a temporary phase, there is nothing to suggest that the economic blockade will be lifted any day soon.

On the other hand, the United Naga Council and other Naga frontal organisations, such as the All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur and the Naga Women Union have announced that the blockade will be intensified in the coming days and one can only imagine what the situation will be like.

This is not the first time that Manipur is reeling under a spell of economic blockade, for one just has to look back at the years gone by to see how the people survived the harrowing days earlier.

From the 52 days economic blockade imposed by the All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur in 2005 to the more than 100 days blockade imposed by the Sadar Hills District Demand Committee in 2011, the people have borne it all.

There have been other blockades in between and it should be more than clear that there just does not seem to be any mechanism to deal with the situation when the State is cut off.

So while the current blockade is a stand against any move from the State Government to declare Sadar Hills as a full fledged district of the State, the target is not Sadar Hills alone but the whole State.

It was the same when the SHDDC imposed the blockade way back in 2011.

Hold all the people to ransom to underline one’s stand and this is what has been dogging the State for decades.

So while there will be a bandh in the valley areas, there will be a highway blockade or rather economic blockade in the hill areas, particularly on the National Highways that connect the State to other parts of the country.

What makes an economic blockade more unacceptable is the fact that it is aimed at making the people suffer.

So from venting their angst against the policy or decision of the State Government, in effect what it does is target the common people. Fuel shortage will have no direct impact on the people who sit in the corridors of power.

Neither will the sky rocketing prices of essential commodities.

It is the people and the biggest irony is it is the common people who target another section of the common people, all in the name of a cause or two. In other words, rooted in all the economic blockades which the people here have seen and experienced is the deep divide between different ethnic groups of people.

Or to put it more directly it reflects the deep divide between the hills and the valley and this is a shame.

In imposing the economic blockade, the UNC and other Naga frontal organisations may be stating a stand in which they believe, but in the process it is the common people who suffer the most.

And as things stand today, it will now be students.