Lim divide continues to run deep: Conflicting demands
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 11 2019 -

Obvious that the Lim divide still runs deep and even as the All Manipur United Clubs Organisation (AMUCO), United Committee Manipur (UCM) and Committee of Civil Societies Kangleipak (CCSK) have made their stand known that any design to compromise with the territorial integrity of Manipur and dilute the understanding of Manipur as a geo-political reality would not be acceptable, the United Naga Council (UNC) has gone ahead and called for the integration of all Naga inhabited areas and made their stand known to Prime Minister Narendra Modi via a memorandum.

Obvious that the UNC and the NSCN (IM), which first raised the banner of a Greater Lim, speak in the same tongue and this is where it will become difficult for the Centre to walk the tightrope.

On the other hand, the Centre has been stoically maintaining that the territorial integrity of the North East States would not be compromised while chalking out the final pact, but it is nonetheless significant to note that this has not discouraged the NSCN (IM) and the UNC to stick to the Lim demand.

The Framework Agreement of August 3, 2015 is still a tightly kept secret, but this has not stopped the UNC and other like minded organisations to refer to it while making their claims.

All the more reason for Manipur to view the August 3, 2015 pact with suspicion and uncertainty.

That the BJP or rather Prime Minister Narendra Modi is intent on wrapping up the peace talk with the NSCN (IM) can be gauged from the fact that just after a little over one year of storming to power in the 2014 Parliamentary elections, the Framework Agreement was inked on August 3, 2015.

The proclamation of Interlocutor to the peace talk and now Governor of Nagaland RN Ravi that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to ink the final pact as soon as possible falls perfectly in line with the Framework Agreement that was signed just a little after a year of Narendra Modi assuming office as the Prime Minister of the country back in 2015.

October is the tentative deadline that has been set and seen against this backdrop, it is not surprising to see stands and positions being echoed loudly by those on either side of the Lim divide.

History knows how Manipur erupted in protest when the words, ‘ceasefire without territorial limits’ were inserted in the ceasefire agreement on June 14, 2001, now known as the Bangkok Agreement.

Like today, it was the BJP which was in power at Delhi in 2001 and which burnt Manipur for days after the huge uproar on June 18, 2001, four days after the Bangkok Declaration was signed.

The memory of those days of protest must still be fresh in the minds of all those who matter and it would be a tragedy if a protest of such scale and dimension erupts when the final pact is signed with the NSCN (IM).

On the other hand, something will have to be given to the NSCN (IM) after these years of negotiations and the most significant point is whether the Centre can say yes to an agreement that does not hurt the interests of anyone.

Will that something to be given to the NSCN (IM) after the years of negotiations be to the detriment of Manipur, is the big question.