Interesting points laid before Amit Shah : Man behind ILP in Manipur
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 28 2020 -

Amendment of the Constitution of India to grant special status on the State of Manipur.

The All Naga Students' Association, Manipur (ANSAM) pitching for a separate flag and Constitution as inalienable rights of the Nagas as well as Naga integration to take the ongoing political dialogue between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India to its logical conclusion.

A number of civil society organisations maintaining that the integrity of Manipur is sacrosanct and not negotiable and asserting that no new demands that may undermine the people's stand on the integrity of Manipur shoujd be floated.

Veteran politician O Joy maintaining that CSOs should discuss issues pertaining to the proposed delimitation, Naga peace talks and the war on drugs campaign taken up by the State Government.

All stands taken one day before the arrival of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and this is understandable for it is not every day that the Union Home Minister visits Manipur and perhaps this is one of the few occasions that a Union Home Minister of India has granted time, even to the extent of delaying his return to New Delhi by two hours, to different CSOs to discuss issues which are staring the people and the place on the face.

This is a positive move and remember that not all the CSOs share the same stand on sensitive issues such as the integrity of Manipur.

How Amit Shah responds to the points put up by the different CSOs remains to be seen but it is significant to note that time has been given to the people to air their stand and this is a positive move.

The stand of the people on the understanding of Manipur as a geo-political reality is something which the Centre must have known from Day I of the peace process starting with the NSCN (IM) back in 1997.

What happened in 2001 is there for all to see and happenings between 2001 and the 2020 should underline the point that Greater Lim or Nagalim or whatever term one may use, has occupied centre stage.

This is where it becomes important to go back to the past and the recent past to really understand how the idea of a Greater Lim or Nagalim has occupied centre stage, driving the hill-valley divide deeper and deeper.

This point should not blow over the heads of anyone, especially New Delhi.

If economic blockades became a term that was synonymous with the previous Congress Government at Imphal, it should not be forgotten that almost all the blockades centred around the idea of a Greater Lim; the demand for district status of Sadar Hills, which has now become Kangpokpi district; the proposed but aborted visit of Thuingaleng Muivah to his birthplace at Somdal village in Ukhrul district; the holding of the ADC elections etc.

Apart from blockades, there was the uproar at Churachandpur in 2015 after the State Assembly passed the three Bills in the backdrop of the growing demand to enforce the Inner Line Permit System in the State to check the inflow of non-locals into the soil of Manipur.

It was only after the BJP led Government came to power in 2017 that the mortal remains of the Churachandpur agitation, which had been lying in state for over two years were laid to rest and it was on December 11, 2019 that the Inner Line Permit was extended to Manipur.

As the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah is seen to be the key man behind the decision to extend ILP to Manipur and it was against this reality that the red carpet was rolled out for the Union Home Minister on December 27.