FMR scrapped, border fencing assured : Address the other points
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 15, 2024 -

Apart from doing away with the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and the announcement that the 1630 kilometre long Indo-Myanmar border would be fenced, what other decisions has New Delhi adopted in the face of the ongoing bloody clash between the Kukis and the Meiteis?

The seriousness of the ongoing clash can be gauged from the fact that it started from May 3, 2023 and for full nine months it has been about targeting the 'other' and killing them.

Apart from the two points mentioned at the opening of this commentary, New Delhi is yet to address any of the prominent points that have been raised from either side of the clash divide.

Take the complete silence of the globe trotting Prime Minister into consideration and here is a perfect recipe for the clash to continue unabated and this is what Manipur is witnessing right now.

Soon after the bloody clash erupted in all its ugliness, the ten Kuki-Zo MLAs raised the banner of a Separate Administration, complete with the claim that it would not be possible to live together with the Meiteis any longer.

A Separate Administration either in the form of a Union Territory or a State may be acceptable within the ambit of the Constitution of India, but is this a possibility in the face of the fact that a good number of Kuki-Zo folks are not natives of the land ?

Refugee is the term that has been used to portray them and in as much as this may be refuted and denied, it stands that it was not so long back that a prominent Kuki scholar, who passed away during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, was reported to have arrived from Myanmar.

A point which was mentioned in clear cut terms in a report filed from Kangpokpi.

It was on this account alone that the United Naga Council had then opposed the plan to bury the mortal remains of the late scholar in the ancestral land of the Nagas-Kangpokpi district.

The refugee tag also fits in perfectly well in the article penned by a Kuki gentleman, a certain Paolienlen Haokip, under the heading, 'Suffering in oblivion : Burmese refugees in North East region of India'.

This article appeared in a publication of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies way back on May 23, 2002.

This is where the argument, 'How can refugees demand a Separate Administration, a sort of a homeland in a land where there are two major indigenous group of people' sounds all that more, legitimate.

The point is New Delhi has not at all addressed this point while at the same time admitting that large scale infiltration from across the bor-der is one reason for the ethnic violence in Manipur.

Even after nine months, New Delhi has not addressed some of the major points that have been raised, most notably the conduct of a National Register of Citizens with 1951 as the base year.

Chief Minister N Biren has already said that those who arrived and settled in Manipur after 1961 would be deported, as per the base year set for the Inner Line Permit, but the question of importance here is whether the Government of India has anything in plan to detect those who have already arrived and settled here.

As argued in an earlier commentary here, the decision to scrap FMR and fence the Indo-Myanmar border should be followed by other steps such as detecting those who have already arrived here and are today claiming rights over the ancestral land of the indigenous people of the place, such as at Mt Thangjing and Mt Koubru, just to name two places.

Another pertinent point that has been raised is the call to abrogate the Suspension of Operation pact with the Kuki-Zo militant groups.

New Delhi may have its reasons for sticking to the SoO pact, but it actually does not make sense to sign a peace pact with a group of armed desperadoes who have never waged a war against the security personnel and are not demanding anything outside the ambit of the Constitution of India.

This is where several misgivings have arisen. The argument that the SoO pact has been signed and is in force to neutralise the Naga armed movement as well the armed organisations of Manipur is gaining ground and not without reason.

A look back at the history of the land will also go a long way in backing the conspiracy theory that has been doing the round and with good reason.

Now that the SoO pact is set to expire by the end of February, another extension cannot be ruled out, but this is something which will not go down well with Manipur.