'Free movement will take time' : Not failing to amaze
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 31, 2025 -

Delhi has never failed to amaze and the line, 'Free movement will take time' is taking this to a new, top notch level.

Besides the gravity of the situation, what is amazing is to see the expertise with which Delhi has taken the penchant of lip sync the thoughts and line of the radical elements of the Kuki militants to an altogether an art form.

When the line, 'Free movement will take time,' was first heard in the newsroom of The Sangai Express it sounded more like a sound byte from the Kuki radicals and not some words coming from the mouth of the supposedly responsible officials of the Union Home Ministry during the meeting with representatives of Federation of Civil Societies (FOCS) at Delhi on May 27.

A look at the reality should explain why this is so.

It has been more than two years or more than 730 days since the Imphal-Dimapur National Highway has been allowed to become the home turf of the Kuki militants.

After Manipur went up in flames in the evening of May 3, 2023, over 60,000 additional troops were flown in here to help take control of the law and order situation.

Now if the Union Home Ministry had approached the issue with the seriousness it deserves then it should not have taken a few hours of intense operation to clear the highway and throw it open for free movement of everyone.

The distance between Kanglatongbi and Kangpokpi district headquarters is only about 25 kilometres.

In between these two places there are some Kuki dominated towns/villages such as Motbung, S Molnom, Sapermeina, Keithelmanbi etc and if Delhi had any intention of clearing this stretch of the highway, it could have done so comfortably in the first few days after May 3, 2023.

No such course of action was taken up and instead Union Home Minister Amit Shah was reported to have instructed the then Chief Minister N Biren to take care of the valley area while he would take charge of the hills.

This instruction was given life and breath by dotting the entire length and breadth of the State with buffer zones and it was ostensibly for violating the buffer zone that the security forces which seemingly tried to enforce the 'free movement from March 8' call of the Union Home Minister were pushed back so convincingly from the Imphal-Kangpokpi highway.

'Free movement will take time' is also a line that seems to have been prepared and worked out a long time back, if one goes back to March 8.

As The Sangai Express had questioned, where was no sanitisation exercise taken up on either side of National Highway 2 before and on March 8?

Why wasn't prohibitory order covering either side of the highway announced on the said day?

Looking back, it all seemed an exercise to enable Delhi to say, 'At least we are doing something to ensure free movement'.

This was the second time that representatives of FOCS met Union Home Ministry officials and other than the 'Free movement will take time' line from the Central team, what other points were conveyed by Delhi?

This is important for this is what Manipur wants to hear and should hear.

The people and the place, more or less, know what FOCS and COCOMI would have placed before Delhi, and the more important part is for the people to know the points the Centre laid down before them.

Apart from the take on free movement, FOCS also divulged that Delhi gave the assurance that the integrity of Manipur would not be compromised under any circumstances.

This is reassuring and while this is noted, it should also be kept in mind that this is the line that Delhi has been maintaining from the day the Separate Administration call was raised by the ten Kuki-Chin-Zo MLAs, backed by the SoO leaders.

The question is, has Delhi taken it further than this, such as telling the Kuki-Zo CSOs and their leaders that the demand for a Separate Administration is out of the question ?

This is what Manipur would like to hear.

Has Delhi ever said anything along this line to the proponents of a Separate Administration?

Did the representatives of FOCS and COCOMI raise this point during the meeting?

An answer would certainly be welcome.