Turning NH-2 to a battlefield : Lessons from March 8
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 11, 2025 -

8th March 2025 has come and gone and what lessons has the Government learnt from it ?

Forty eight hours after the free for all that one could see on National Highway 2 and the tales that came along with the circus that was enacted, there is nothing much to suggest that some important pointers have been picked up.

Members of the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), the group responsible for instigating the womenfolk and the misplaced youths to come out and derail the ‘ensure free movement of everyone‘ call from the Union Home Minister, continue to walk tall and spew venom-just like the long rope given to the then leaders of All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur, which orchestrated the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023-the tale of the Government not doing anything to rein in the trouble makers continue to hang heavy.

This is the reality and the scary part is, the long rope given, first to ATSUM and now CoTU, can have an effect, an effect in the sense that there can be other entities which will use this as the perfect example to pursue their agenda without fearing any action from the Government.

New Delhi and more importantly Raj Bhavan must take note of this.

In the first place, it should be acknowledged that the top honchos in the State administration miserably failed to read the writings on the wall and the bloody face off that ensued between the security personnel and the hundreds of Kuki protesters on National Highway 2 was a direct fall out of the failure of the present dispensation to understand the ground reality.

As pointed out earlier in this column, there was nothing to indicate that some action had been taken up to sanitise NH-2, especially the stretch that falls within Kangpokpi district.

Moreover no sort of any prohibitory measures were seen taken up on either side of the National Highway to dissuade the protesters to come anywhere near the Highway.

Was any Road Opening Patrol sent ahead before the bus from Imphal was flagged off for Senapati, a journey that necessitates passing through Kangpokpi and other Kuki dominated areas ?

The end result of March 8, 2025 should tell the undiluted story, a tale that spoke of the utter failure of the people responsible for law and order in the State.

It is in the face of this abject failure, that Manipur takes the ‘No’ assertion of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to the demand of a Separate Administration raised by the Kuki-Zo MLAs and backed by CoTU and ITLF, with a pinch of salt.

Taken with a pinch of salt, but it is nonetheless assuring to hear that Amit Shah has given a resounding no to the demand for a Separate Administration.

And it should be clear that it is the agenda of a Separate Administration that drove CoTU and the Kuki-Zo people to openly go against the call of the Union Home Minister to ensure free movement of all people in Manipur.

And as if the wild, violent protest that was staged on March 8 is not enough, the Kuki-Zo Council has gone ahead with its call of a shutdown in all Kuki-Zo inhabited areas.

This in effect means that National Highway-2 is under shutdown and this would adversely impact on the free movement of the Naga people of Senapati district.

And even as the KZC has gone ahead and imposed its shutdown, the Mao Market which opens twice a week at Imphal-Tuesday and Friday-seems set to remain closed on March 11, thereby severely impacting on the earning avenue of the Mao people.

Just an example that comes to mind but this example should not blow over the heads of Raj Bhavan, for if members of a community, which is not part of the ongoing ethnic conflict, are going to be adversely affected, then things can only take a turn for the worse.

A case of an effort to put Manipur on the track of normalcy further muddying the water and this is something which cannot and should not be taken lightly.

For too long Manipur has continued to burn and it is time for Delhi to show that there is a Government in place and Raj Bhavan should be the entity to demonstrate this.

For starters pull up leaders of CoTU for the March 8, 2025 violence and for defying the standing instructions of the Union Home Minister.