Tension filled days for over 2 weeks: Script for uncertainty
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 15 2019 -

For over two weeks, the air has been thick with tension.

So thick that one can run a knife through it and making things more dicey is the fact that no one can say when the tension filled days will pass.

Not a single day passes without a rally, alert sit-ins, slogan raising etc but more than clear that this has not moved the Centre one bit.

The public movement is obviously led by the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) and making the situation more intense are the other political parties, such as the Congress and the Left which have raised the demand that the Assembly be convened so that the highest decision making body of the State can pass another resolution to the effect that the final pact with the NSCN (IM) will not infringe on the interests of Manipur.

To Chief Minister N Biren and the ruling BJP, convening an Assembly session at this point is meaningless as the House has already passed numerous resolutions to the effect that the interests of Manipur should not be compromised to work out a deal with the NSCN (IM).

Whether the stand of the Chief Minister and the BJP makes sense or not will obviously depend on which side of the political divide one stands, but battle lines seem to have been drawn and whichever way the final pact turns out to be, this will be used to the hilt in the campaigning when the State goes for the Assembly polls in 2022.

This is a good 2.5 years away and the matter of greater concern is obviously the immediate, such as the content of the Framework Agreement and the points that were discussed on October 31 this year and which paved the way for the final pact to be inked anytime in the coming days.

Nagalim out. Separate flag and Constitution out.

This was Interlocutor to the peace talks and Governor of Nagaland, RN Ravi at Silchar a few days back.

A public announcement this was and one may take his word for it.

To the COCOMI then the worry is obviously anything that may be sown now and which can lead to the disintegration of the State in the near future.

With the Framework Agreement and the points discussed on October 31, still a closely guarded secret, there are speculations doing the round and the refusal of New Delhi to spell out the details has only led to the speculations to get more and more intense.

Not good for Manipur in any sense of the word.

And remember the NSCN (IM) seemed to have signed off the October 31 meeting on a good note, with its general secretary Th Muivah even going to the extent of expressing gratitude to all the Nagas for their prayers and support at that point of time.

This obviously means that the NSCN (IM) may have something up its sleeves which only it and the Government of India seem to know at the moment.

It is this climate of uncertainty that has only gone to add more to the days of tension right now.

It is on this basis that the series of alert meetings announced by COCOMI continue to elicit positive response from the people and given the way things are proceeding, Manipur can certainly expect to see more street protests.

The ongoing peace talk, the Framework Agreement, the October 31 points that were discussed and agreed upon all go together to make the perfect script for uncertainty and doubts.