Does Imphal have the spunk to state its stand ? On and off stand on SoO pact
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 24, 2024 -

The game that Delhi plays and the crucial question is whether Imphal has the spunk and the conviction to state its mind before the Delhi mandarins who lord over everything that has anything to do with Manipur.

Look back to two very crucial steps taken by the Government of Manipur in the not so distant past and juxtapose those steps with the approach that Delhi has adopted and which has come tumbling out.

It was on February 29 this year that the Manipur Legislative Assembly passed a resolution to urge the Centre to abrogate the Suspension of Operation pact with some Kuki-Zo militant outfits.

This was followed by the Cabinet decision of March 10 to withdraw from the SoO pact with the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) and the Kuki National Army (KNA) on the ground that the two outfits were instrumental in inciting agitation against the move of the State Government to evict encroachers from Reserved Forest.

Steps taken up by the State Government and while Delhi did not say anything on these developments, instead preferring to watch and perhaps study the likely impact it may have on India’s geo-politics in the Indo-Myanmar region, the Centre followed its ‘politics of silence’ on the status of the SoO pact when its term expired on February 29 this year.

Silence, this was the response of New Delhi when the SoO pact expired and logic says that if no words are said on its extension that it remains that its validity has expired.

However that this was not the case became somewhat clear after Chief Minister N Biren toed the line, ‘Suspension of Operation agreement should be assumed as still operational even though the State Government has withdrawn from the agreement’ in reply to a question raised by Congress MLA K Ranjit on the floor of the Assembly on August 8 this year.

Not surprisingly the wishy washy stand of the Chief Minister-a case of neither here nor there-did not go down well with Manipur at all, but as things stand now, this has gelled with New Delhi’s version of ‘validity’ and this is best underlined by the fact that the Union Home Ministry is now reviewing the ground rules of the SoO pact.

A report in The Hindu said that one of the measures proposed by the Centre is removal of SoO camps from locations close to the valley districts which are dominated by the Meiteis.

The report further said that this particular point was also discussed on June 17, when the Union Home Minister reviewed the security situation in Manipur, in the absence of Chief Minister N Biren.

One can still recall this particular meeting as it was called to discuss Manipur without the Chief Minister in attendance.

If one goes by the report carried by The Hindu datelined New Delhi, August 23, then three rounds of meetings have been held since August 19 and simple maths says that the three meetings were held over a span of 5 days and Manipur was not kept posted on this series of meetings.

Territorial Council for the Kuki-Zos was the initial point agreed to by the SoO groups, before this stand morphed into a call for a Separate Administration after violence erupted on May 3, 2023.

Certain points become clear, that is if one goes by the report carried by The Hindu.

Long before the ethnic violence erupted on May 3, 2023, the SoO groups had already embraced the idea of a Territorial Council, a sort of a self governance, which in fact goes against the understanding of Manipur as a geo-political reality.

Maybe it was this idea that the call for a sort of self governance was within reach that prompted the Kuki militants to go on the offensives against the Meiteis on May 3, 2023.

Go back to Torbung, Churachandpur, Moreh and Kangpokpi to understand why the offensives against the Meitei civilians were launched and hereby hangs the validity of the question why a protest against the policies and programmes of the Government should be turned against the Meiteis.

Not the first time that this question is being raised, but for reasons which should be obvious to everyone, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) and Kuki Inpi, Manipur have remained silent on this.

A brief recollection this is and it is against the backdrop of this reality that the politics of Delhi should be understood.

A case of a ‘co-operating Chief Minister,’ a line uttered by none less than the Union Home Minister on the floor of Parliament, but yet at the same time clobbering the stand taken under the said Chief Minister for a big six !

Delhi can indeed play dirty.