Prepare the table for a negotiation : Stepping stone to a solution
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 23, 2014 -

Cessation of hostility is the first step towards bringing about a long, lasting solution to a vexed issue.

And the inking of the Suspension of Operation or SoO pact between the security forces and the Kuki armed groups neatly falls into this.

However the cessation of armed hostility or conflict between armed organisation/s and the security agencies of the Government of India cannot be seen or understood as an end in itself, but a means to achieve an end.

The Government of India and the State Government know this. So too the armed outfits, the Kuki armed groups in this case.

It is here that the contention of the Kuki National Organisation (KNO, one of the two umbrella organisations, which has inked the SoO pact with the Government becomes noteworthy.

No guess work here and nothing unofficial about it, for the spokesman of the KNO, Dr Seilen Haokip has already gone on record and stated that the Government of India has not officially intimated to the outfit about the extension of the SoO pact.

A point which has been given extensive coverage in the State dailies and Delhi and Imphal certainly cannot take this as just another report carried in the September 22 edition of the newspapers here.

It is a report but which nonetheless needs to be treated with the seriousness it deserves. The SoO pact did not come on a platter.

For reasons which have not been spelt out officially, the State Government was not a party to the agreement when it was first inked many years back and it was only later that Imphal ratified it and became a party to the pact.

A hard earned peace process, if one may add. That a political dialogue is yet to start even after all these years says something significant and in many ways this is also a testimony of how serious Delhi and Imphal are to working out a solution which is acceptable to all.

An agreement without first talking borders more on a pipe dream but more than obviously Delhi and Imphal want to live this dream.

Not surprisingly, in the absence of a political dialogue, no one seems to know what it is that the Kuki armed outfits are after, especially when they talk of a solution.

The only bits of information that the people have been able to lay their hands on are the tough talks and postures adopted by either side all these years.

Confusion and uncertainty can only be to the detriment of Manipur as a political and social entity and it is unfathomable why Imphal would want this.

Or maybe this is what the political class wants. Sow the seeds of uncertainty and increase the level of mutual distrust and carry on at the expense of the people of Manipur.

A near perfect script of turning a win-win situation into a lose-lose state. It is not very often that armed groups agree to come to the negotiating table.

It is also rare for armed groups to wait this long for the Government to chart out a road map for a political dialogue.

Something which the Kuki armed outfits have been doing all these years. This is not to say that the Kuki armed outfits have strictly adhered to the ground rules of the SoO agreement in letter and spirit.

However this should not come in the way of starting the spadework for the cessation of hostilities to turn into a political dialogue.

The KNO has already spoken out its mind. It is now up to Imphal and Delhi to carry on from there. Not the time to beat around the bush and create more confusion.