Toward a Win-Win Resolution of the Indo-Manipur Armed Conflict (IMAC)
- Part 4 -

Nongdrenkhomba Senjam *

cadres of various insurgent groups operating in Manipur laid down their arms on 30 April 2012 :: Pix - David M Mayum

Let me present a made-up treaty which will offer a glimpse into what can form the primary ingredients of a ROSBECA-based IMAC resolution treaty.

TRILATERAL TREATY FOR AN IMMEDIATE AND PERMANENT END TO THE INDO-MANIPUR ARMED CONFLICT

In order to bring the curtain down on the protracted IMAC, which has already caused a haemorrhage of life and other precious resources, we, the undersigned, representing the GoI as Party-1, the Joint Committee of the ASGoMs as party-2 and the UNSCRIMAC (this is a hypothetical international organisation standing for UN Special Committee for Resolution of the IMAC) as Party-3, involved in its capacity as enforcer of the treaty by agreement of both sides of the IMAC, do hereby embrace the following provisions as the bedrock of this treaty on this day of...

PART-I

For the threefold purpose of addressing the reasonable fears and insecurities of the people of Manipur, winning their genuine trust and ensuring their overall security, the GoI is pleased to make the following undertakings:

1. The GoI will get the following amendments to the constitution of India passed in Parliament via the provisions of Article 368 thereof in a matter of two years from the date hereof:

a) Amendment to 1 of the Constitution of India whereby its part that lays down that no state has the right to secede from the Union of India and that the very existence of each state is at the diserection of the Union Government of India will stand inapplicable to the State of Manipur.

b) Amendments to the Constitution of India by virtue of which Articles 3, 354, 358 and 359, which grant the Union Government of India extraordinary powers unacceptable to the people of Manipur will apply to the State of Manipur.

c) Amendment to the Constitution of India whereby the elective legislature of Manipur will be given by the Constitution of India the power to modify or reject any Manipur-specific Union law or policy, should they feel the need to.

d) Amendments to the Constitution of India whereby all national or regional political parties, except locally-formed ones, will be completely prohobited from participating in the politics of the State of Manipur.

e) Amendments to the Constitution of India by virtue of which the State of Manipur will be granted an extraordinary one-off power to expropriate all agricultural land and other business properties belonging to every household whose net worth minus the imputed home value not exceeding 33 lakhs is 7 lakhs or above when divided by the number of genuine members of the households living below the poverty line in ascending order via an equitable and transparent mechanism on these conditions:

i) The beneficiary household shall have no right to sell or lease their land or property allocations;

ii) When the beneficiary households rise above a particular net worth level, they shall forfeit their land or property allocations so that they can be redistributed among households fighting poverty;

iii) The beneficiary households shall contribute 5 per cent of the total income received from their respective land or property allocations to the state's exchequer and 2 per cent to the proverty alleviation fund of the state.

f) Amendment to the Constitution of India whereby the provision of the death penalty in the Indian criminal justice system will be rendered inapplicable to the State of Manipur or any person thereform in case of their conviction outside the State of Manipur but within the rest of the Union of India. Moreover, the same amendment will ensure that no native resident of Manipur is sentenced to prison terms longer than ten years in the event of their conviction outside the State of Manipur but within the rest of India, irrespective of their crimes, and that in case of more than one sentence they are always made concurrent.

g) Amendment to Constitution of India whereby it will be made mandatory for the Union Government of India to obtain prior approval of a special majority of the elective legislature of Manipur and at least two incumbent members of one or both houses of Parliament from the State of Manipur before it imposes a new or existent contingency pan-India law, for instance the NCTC, on the State of Manipur.

h) Amendment to the Constitution of India whereby the State of Manipur will begin to be called the Special Autonomous State of Manipur because of all the above amendments to the Constitution of India. It will also make it mandatory to use the new name for all purpose in the wake of passing it.

2. The GoI will never deploy any forms of non-conventional weapons, be it nuclear, chemical, biological or otherwise, or build up, install or run any military facilities/systems such as ballistic missile defence systems and anti-aircraft missile systems in any parts of Manipur as they can make Manipur a primary target for hostile countries in case of war.

3. Should an occasion of conscription ever arise in the country, the GoI will not impose any compulsory conditions on Manipur and it will rest with the Government of Manipur to decide the number of persons to be conscripted from Manipur.

4. The GoI will introduce a new law within a period of 6 months that will ensure that the ratio of the non-local population to the local population of Manipur never rises above 15:100 (a non-local resident may be defined as any resident of the state who or whose immediate family came to Manipur after 15th October 1949 and has been residing in the state for over two consecutive months, regardless of caste, religion, race, nationality, etc.). In case the ratio has already risen above the limit, the law will enable the State of Manipur to expel the excess non-local population on the basis of shorter residence period. Further, the same law will prohibit any non-local residents who were not born in Manipur, cannot read and write the original script of Manipur, i.e.the Meetei Mayek, and speak any of the native languages of Manipur fluently enough from excercising their suffrage in the state.

5. The GoI will impose within three months a permanent blanket ban on the sale and consumption of Zarda, sweet betel, tobacco-based products, liquor and other unhealthy items that do not come under the purview of the NDPS Act in the entire State of Manipur. The same ban will also apply to all military and parliamentary personnel stationed in the State of Manipur as well as tourists.

6. The GoI will extend in the next Budget a grand green revolution package as a non-Plan aid to the State of Manipur in order to enable it to achieve self-adequacy in food production without resorting to genetically modified stuff. The GoI will also write off the State's debt, waive all central liabilities such as loans carried by the people of Manipur and grant a special non-Plan aid package to the State of Manipur for asset and job creation in the upcoming Budget so that it can deal effectively with the challenge of persistent unemployment in the state, which is chief structural in nature.

7. The members of the ASGoMs will never be prosecuted for any kinds ofunlawful activities except the crimes of sexual nature, kidnappng and/or murder of minors and drug trafficking that any of them had actually committed or are alleged to have committed prior to the date hereof.

8. The members of the ASGoMs will be properly rehabilitated by giving them government jobs and housing within a period of two years. For those who have made the supreme sacrifice in the IMAC, their next of kin will be granted a sum of .... each in compensation within one year.

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 will be dispensed with from the State of Manipur within a month.

Part-II

In response to all the above-mentioned undertakings of the GoI, the Joint Committee of the ASGoMs hereby agrees that:

1. All the ASGoMs will immediately cease all their anti-India activities and others that may be considered bereft of legality and reason.

2. All the ASGoMs will deposit all their weaponry in an armoury within a period of three months.

3. In the wae of this treaty all the ASGoMs will never again object to Manipur remaining a part of the Union of India or raise the issue of sovereignty or moot the idea of an independent Manipur, provided that the GoI fulfils in time all its undertakings made herein and nevers reverses them thereafter.

4. All the members of each ASGoMs will move to their respective designated camps where they will stay until they are given government jobs and housing by the GoI as per Section 8, Part-I of this treaty.

5. All the ASGoMs will cease to exist immediately after the GoI completely fulfils all its guarantees made herein. However, they have the option to reconstitute themselves as political/social organisations if they wish so.

6. On the GoI's complete fulfilment of all its undertakings made herein, the joint Committee will be terminated and all its functions automatically assumed by the elective legislative assembly of Manipur.

7. The day the GoI completes the fulfilment of its undertakings made herein will be marked as the actual day of Manipur's merger with the Union of India. From the day onwards, every Manipurian will begin to consider India as our own country.

Part-III

In view of all the above undertakings of both Party 1 and Party 2, the UNSCRIMAC hereby assumes the responsibility for enforcing the following provisions of this treaty:

1. If the GoI should fail to fulfil in time its undertakings made herein or renege on or reverse any of them after their fulfilment, without prior knowledge and approval of the UNSCRIMAC, a plebiscite will be conducted under the supervision of the UNSCRIMAC so as to enable the local people of Manipur to decide through the ballot box whether to remain a part of India or secede therefrom and become an independent country within the framework of a nation state.

2. If the ASGoMs should fail to keep their side of the bargain in entirely or in parts, the state of Manipur shall relinquish whatever the GoI grants it by virtue of this treaty expecting economic packages and Sections 1 (b's amendment vis-a-vis Article 3 of the Constitution of India), (e) & (f), 2, 3, 4 and 5 of Part-I , which are more about safeguarding the inalienable rights and interests of the indigenous people of Manipur as required by international rights instruments like the ICESCR and the ICCPR, 1966.

However, in case a new separatist group of Manipur springs up, broaches the issue of sovereignty and revives the idea of an independent in the wake of thos treaty, it will be up to the State of Manipur (to be known as the Special Autonomous State of Manipur after the fulfilment by Party 1 of Section 1 (h) of Part I) to nip the problem in the bud. Meanwhile, the mother organization of the UNSCRIMAC, i.e. the UN and the whole international community will continue to treat Manipur as a de jure part of India as long as the GoI respects its side of this treaty.

If a dispute falling outside the ambit (terms of reference) of the UNSCRIMAC should ever arise out of this treaty, it shall be referred only to the International Court of Justice, which has the ultimate jurisdiction over the international disputes. If the dispute is likely to last longer than six months, the UNSCRIMAC reserves the right to decide whether or not to get Manipur declared a trust territory and place it under the UN Trusteeship Council until the UN General Assembly incoordination with the UN Security Council passes and declares a definitive resolution on the IMAC on the basis of the judgement of the ICJ.

To be continued ....