Of home coming, SoO, MoU, truce pact : Merchants of peace and more
- Sangai Express Editorial :: September 12, 2013 -

Peddling peace.

If the Government's idea of peace does not go beyond the realm of 'surrender', 'home coming', 'MoUs', 'SoO', 'ceasefire', etc then be rest assured peace would continue to be a mirage.

To be sure a good number of armed outfits or their cadres have changed tracks and are now smoking the peace pipe and talking about thrashing out the issues across the negotiating table.

This is a move forward from the days when Manipur was literally choc-a-bloc with armed outfits, with anyone in the position to float a new outfit and christening it with some high sounding names.

United, Liberation, Front, Force, Defence etc are some of the terms which had come from the fertile minds of some of these people who took up the guns and came out with some highly 'appealing' statements, laid down their own code of delivering justice for the 'betterment' of society, imposed their writs and diktats on the people with the rider that if anyone dares to defy them then they should be ready to face the music.

And of course in the process some of these groups did display their nuisance value, at times with deadly accuracy, killing and maiming innocent people and extracting their pound of flesh by way of deducting percentage cuts from all contract and supply works, serving extortion notices and abducting for ransom.

Now that a good section of these groups of people have agreed to come to the negotiating table, can Manipur really expect to see peace, as universally understood ?

The Government seems to think so, as far as their public posture is concerned. But one niggling question, a question which has been raised in this column on more than one occasion remains unanswered.

On whose behalf are the groups going to talk with the Government ?

On behalf of the people ?

Or on behalf of their own cadres, read rehabilitation, which comes with the perks of monthly allowance and stretch this point a little more, then some sort of a license to move around more freely and go about with their business of extorting and abducting under the protection provided by the MoU, SoO, ceasefire etc.

Merchants of peace.

Yes every efforts taken up to walk the distance towards peace should be encouraged but at what cost and on whose behalf ?

As things stand today, the numerous peace pacts signed have only meant the guns going silent between the groups concerned and the security forces.

There is nothing for the public in it and peace surely cannot be understood sans the interest of the public.

In this part of the world, where anyone can come up with a name and announce that a 'liberation group' has been formed, peace can be a dicey matter.

A peace which has been trumpeted more often than not to pull wool over the eyes of the public.

More like creating a smokescreen to shift the focus from the real conflict situation in which Manipur finds itself today.

A case in point is the continued imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Nagaland and elsewhere where all the major groups have inked the peace pact with the Government of India.

A case of the peace pacts failing to move beyond the understanding of the guns going silent.

Ceasing of hostilities between the armed groups and the Government forces cannot be equated with the universal understanding of peace, by any yard stick.

At the moment, Mr Ibobi and his men may be under the impression that they can comfortably smoke the peace pipe, in the face of numerous armed cadres and groups coming over ground to negotiate with the Government, but the smoke that billows from the peace pipe will only create a smoke screen to the real situation here.

The singular failure to answer the question of on whose behalf are the groups going to negotiate with the Government is pregnant with meaning.