Setting pre-conditions for talks : Riders to cease hostilities
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 03, 2025 -

Three preconditions and that too qualified by the term ‘non-negotiable’ and one is left wondering whether the Kuki-Zo civil society organisations are actually serious about ceasing hostilities.

Or is this a ploy to strike a tough stand and be in a position to ‘bargain for more’ before the Union Home Ministry pending the crucial April 5 meeting with their Meitei counterparts ?

‘We are ready for talks to cease hostilities, but this should be on our terms and conditions,’ is the line maintained and nothing can get more farcical than this.

Not clear how well the conditions set by the Kuki-Zo CSOs would have gone down with the people who matter, particularly the Meitei folks, but they have already laid their card on the table and one wonders whether the riders set by them would have any takers.

The universal understanding of a dialogue to end days of hostilities should be about putting across one’s ideas and thoughts without any strings attached and if the Kuki-Zo CSOs are under the impression that they can convince anyone to agree to their pre-conditions then it would be far removed from the understanding of any effort aimed at ending hostilities.

Mark the first pre-condition they has lined up, ‘No cross movement-meaning there shall be no movement of Meitei individuals in Kuki-Zo dominated areas and vice versa’ and this is nothing short of a direct challenge to the directive issued by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure free movement of everyone across the length and breadth of Manipur from March 8.

That the attempt to ensure free movement along NH-2 fell flat on its face on March 8 perhaps has given a fillip to the Kuki-Zo CSOs to strike such a nonchalant stand and this is where one is left wondering whether the ‘free movement from March 8’ call of Amit Shah was just a ploy to test the water !

It is also interesting to note that the Kuki-Zo CSOs have deemed it fit to lay down that the cessation of hostilities will be observed for 6 months and this should more than underline the fact that it is the armed militants of the Kuki-Zo community who have been on the offensive starting from the gun wielding elements who took part in the May 3, 2023 Tribal Solidarity March.

The shadow of SoO continues to cast its long shadow and this is something which should not be brushed aside by Raj Bhavan and the Union Home Ministry.

All indications that the Kuki-Zos are still itching for endless rounds of violence and confrontations and killings and to think that this is the same set of people who have been playing the victim card since the evening of May 3, 2023 and everything should fall into place.

Manipur cannot afford to forget the slogan, ‘Peace later, solution first,’ a slogan coined by the Committee on Tribal Unity and which has been the calling card of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) too.

It is as yet unclear which group or which CSO would represent Manipur in the April 5 meeting at New Delhi, but it would be interesting to see how things proceed.

Or will it also go the way of the October 15, 2024 meeting last year at New Delhi, which ended with no one in Manipur really knowing what exactly transpired during the meeting ?

This was in 2024 and one hopes things would have somewhat changed six months hence and Manipur can expect something concrete out of the April 5 meeting, that is if at all the meeting takes place.

Or is it going to be a meeting between representatives of the Government (which is under PR) and the Kuki-Zo leaders ?

In such a case, will the people or Manipur accept whatever is discussed or agreed to during the scheduled meeting ?

Only questions at the moment, but it should be clear that the Kuki-Zo CSOs appear to be deadly serious about the scheduled meeting and hence the pre-conditions which have been given wide publicity in the Imphal based newspapers.

A few days to go before April 5, but the efforts being taken up the Union Home Ministry to put Manipur on the track of normalcy cannot be dismissed that easily, especially not with the type of pre-conditions laid down by the Kuki-Zo CSOs and from the very pre-conditions laid down it should be clear who has been engineering the clash for the last 24 months.

On the other hand Manipur should also make it clear that NRC is a must to weed out all illegal immigrants and make the War on Drugs meaningful and take it to its logical conclusion and in the process defang the narco-terrorists who have been masterminding the clash, from Day 1.