Written assurance from MHA : Thank the ASEAN Car Rally
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 15, 2012 -

Finishing touches given to NH-2 at Moreh on December 14 2012 :: Pix - TSE

The Kuki State Demand Committee got its timing right. Apparently Delhi too got its timing right.

But be clear, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued the written assurance to start a political dialogue with the SoO signatories not because of the proposed public blockade but because of the decision to boycott the ASEAN-India Car Rally, which is poised to enter India via Moreh today.

A clear indication that it was not the prospect of people suffering which prompted the Centre to give the written assurance but to ensure the smooth flow of the ASEAN-India Car Rally and nothing should explain where Manipur and her people figure on the priority list of Delhi.

This spirit too was unmistakable when Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam addressed the media, before the KSDC formally announced its decision to roll back the boycott and public blockade decision.

Revoke the boycott decision was the appeal issued and the public blockade featured nowhere in his address to the media.

Perhaps time for the people to come out on the streets and cheer the ASEAN-India Car Rally when it enters Manipur, for it is this which has saved them from spending another night in a queue before a petrol pump or face the heart burn of having to pay Rs 60 for a kilogram of Onion !

India's Look East Policy is no doubt important, not only to Delhi but to the North East region as a whole, but if one takes this particular instance into consideration then it becomes clear that Manipur figures in Delhi's scheme of things only as an outpost, the doorway to South East Asia.

The people do not matter at all.

This mindset explains why a highway blockade was allowed to cross the hundred days mark in 2011. This should also explain the earlier marathonesque blockades witnessed in 2005 and 2010.

If the KSDC got its timing right in extracting the written assurance from Delhi, then it is only right that the people of Manipur, as a whole, prime themselves to poke Delhi where it hurts.

Expose their double standard before the international community and keep on at it unrelentingly.

Imposing an Act such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in an undeclared state of conflict or war.

Refusing to implement the Inner Line Permit System but deemed necessary to impose the Protected Area Permit in the State for decades.

Even today, the PAP is yet to be totally removed with Delhi deciding that it would be relaxed on a year to year basis. Anytime it can be reimposed.

For too long the people of Manipur have been taken for granted.

Be sure if the ASEAN-India Car Rally was not on schedule, the written assurance from Delhi would not have come.

The people would have been left to suffer the public blockade as proposed by the KSDC. It is this mentality that should be opposed tooth and nail.

The political leaders of the State too should take up this matter with Delhi.

If a written assurance could be given on the eve of the Car Rally entering Manipur, then what stopped the Union Home Ministry from issuing it earlier ?