Looking back at March 8, 2025 : Solution first, peace later slogan
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 20, 2025 -

The call of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure free movement of the people all over the State obviously failed to cut ice with the Kangpokpi based Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) and the March 8 bus journey on the Imphal-Dimapur highway was cut short, and a retired doctor and another companion who volunteered to take the bus journey had to cut short their trip and return before reaching Senapati.

The interesting question is what lessons have Amit Shah and others learnt from the March 8 aborted trip along the National Highway?

Is it going to be a case of the Government caving in to the radical stand of CoTU or will some efforts be made to open the Highway and make it accessible to all the people of Manipur?

No answers at the moment, but the very fact that this question has been raised should bring home the point that something could have been taken up before the much publicised road trip and the bus that was flagged off at Imphal International Airport on March 8.

The shortfalls, and which The Sangai Express had pointed out need serious deliberations.

For one, why were there no road opening exercise on the said date?

Common sense says that the-Government should have imposed prohibitory orders around the rdad that passes through the Kuki dominated places such as Sapermeina, Motbung and other settlements along the highway.

The highway should have been sanitised thoroughly for it became more than evident that CoTU would put in all efforts to neutralise the free movement call of the Union Home Minister.

That the great march on the National Highway was punctured is there for all to see, but what other course of action has Raj Bhavan taken up to open the highway?

Security should have been put on very high alert to ensure the safety of anyone taking the route for the first time after May 3, 2023.

It has also been the stand of The Sangai Express that the over 60,000 troops rushed into Manipur after the place went up in flames in 2023, should have been pushed to secure the highway.

That such a move was not seen coming from the side of the Government is there for one and all to see and the way the National Highway was reduced to a state of free for all on March 8 should say something profound.

It was a misadventure, all right, but what happened on that day should be understood as something more than what happened on a single day, for it brought to light the preparations taken up to jeopardise anything that could be seen as efforts to restore a semblance of normalcy.

New Delhi does not need to bring in its best minds on board to understand who has been opposing any move to put the State on the track of normalcy.

Delhi should also understand the legitimacy in the call to conduct a National Register of Citizens (NRC) and weed out all the illegal immigrants.

It was just a few days back that Amit Shah raised the war cry against drug trafficking and how to make India a drug free country.

A look at the flow of drugs and how the route has changed from the Imphal-Moreh line to neighbouring Mizoram should tell its own significant story.

The drug trade, this is what -is keeping the wheels of the violence churning and the merit behind the call of Manipur to abrogate the SoO pact should be understood taking the reality into consideration.

A multi-crore venture, this is what the drug business is all about and the rampant deforestation and poppy plantations should be understood in the context of the flourishing drug trade.

And who gets the lion's share from the drug trade ?

The term narco-terrorism should be understood in the backdrop of the reality, a reality that becomes more and more clear with each passing day.

Delhi should have understood the reality, a reality that came out in all its ugliness on the day that the Union Home Minister announced the start of the free movement of all the people in the State.

March 8, 2025 should be the day for the Union Home Ministry to open its eyes to the reality, for here is a case of a voluntary organisation coming out to defy the directive of the Union Home Minister.