Politics of silence, intrigues
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 22, 2010 -

So after all, the Union Home Secretary GK Pillai and naturally by extension, New Delhi, do at times take the reports published in Imphal based newspapers seriously and with the merit it deserves, if we go by the statement given by the officer to an Imphal based English daily that Delhi would take up a suo moto case based on the media reports about the arrest of UNLF Chairman RK Meghen alias Sanayaima and then accordingly take up the matter with their counter parts in Dhaka.

In the same vein and conviction, Pillai also stoutly denied all reports that RK Meghen has been brought to Delhi and we leave it to the wisdom of the general public, the readers, those with probing minds and those section of people who are not unfamiliar with activities such as covert operations and what international protocol is all about.

On the other hand, it is also a welcome sign that some newspapers based in Imphal have been able to contact people who matter in Delhi to give us some interesting bit of news, on the current issue. While circumstances under which the UNLF chief was arrested remain a matter of speculations amid a rubble of unanswered questions, we may recall some other instances in the past and compare them with the present case.

RK Meghen is not the first wanted man in India to get arrested in a foreign soil. The reasons for the arrest may vary from things such as crimes committed on foreign soil, carrying invalid or forged passs ports and other reasons such as Interpol issuing a red notice for someone on the run, so that he or she may not take cover in any country, which adhere to the set and laid down international norms, rules and regulations.

Or it could be because of an extradition treaty signed between two countries, wherein both parties agree that any criminal or wanted man on either side should be handed over to the country of the arrested man's origin, without any questions asked.

In the case of India and Bangladesh, there is no extradition agreement or deal signed, but this will not in any way be allowed to become a legal hurdle, if both Governments agree on certain common grounds. This is a brief statement on how the international community function when anyone, other than their citizens are arrested on their soil and what makes the arrest of Sanayaima a little different from some of the cases that we know, is the level of transparency or lack of it maintained by either countries.

Bangladesh has not yet come out with an official statement that Sanayaima has been arrested and is in their custody. India too has not officially said anything, other than what the Union Home Secretary said during his recent four day visit to the State.

Compare this to the case when one of the top functionaries of ULFA, Anup Chetia was arrested and jailed in Bangladesh some years back. We can also cite the arrest of Th Muivah in Bangkok in the early years of this decade on charges of entering the country under forged documents and more recently, readers were regularly kept informed of the official procedures taken up in connection with the arrest and sentence passed against Charles Sobhraj in Nepal. Or remember the time when the notorious Abu Salem was arrested in Portugal many years back along with his starlet companion ?

In all the cases that we have just referred to, there was nothing mysterious or unanswered question or a strict divide between what is official and what is not as in the case with Sanayaima right now. Not a single answer has been forthcoming, even after the Vice Chairman of the UNLF has openly admitted, through the media, that Sanayaima has been arrested in Dhaka.

Is there a political reason for the selective silence maintained by both the countries, or is there something more sinister that it requires complete silence and even to the extent of putting up a show of indifference ? Either way, things do not look good for silence on such a sensitive matter and for such a long time and involving a rebel leader of standing (whether one agrees with his ideology or not is a different thing) could mean so many things and not all of them will be pleasant.

The Government of India knows, the State Government knows too and so do all the stake holders including the common denizens of Manipur, that the capture and arrest of Meghen will not and cannot be the end of the outfit, of which he was the Chairman.

We had earlier commented that the "next few days" will be crucial, when the arrest of Meghen reached the media, and it has indeed become crucial, for the deafening silence on the matter will undoubtedly raise the question of whether Delhi is sincere in wanting to resolve the armed movement in the North East region, Manipur in particular.

Or is there a deliberate ploy of Delhi to create an uneasy situation for the outfit, that is the UNLF, so that its backbone can be broken ? Only time will tell whether such a ploy or tactic will be successful or not or whether Delhi has such a trick up its sleeves but the one point that should be very clear to all is that no armed movement has been identified and carried alone on the shoulder of an individual.

Sure the arrest of Meghen and the politics of intrigues being adopted by Delhi may set back the UNLF by a few years, but it would be fooling themselves if they come under the impression that the arrest of its Chairman has dealt the finishing blow to the UNLF.

In the ultimate analysis, nothing works better than honesty coupled with transparency and acknowledging the sensitivity of such cases as well as the sentiments of a people.