Competiting forces on land and territory : Core issues of Manipur
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 11, 2013 -

One reportedly at the final stage of inking a settlement. The other reportedly at the stage of kick starting a political dialogue.

Naga issue and Kuki issue.

One under the IM faction of the NSCN and the other under the two umbrella organisations of Kuki armed groups, the Kuki National Organisation and the United People's Front, which have signed the Suspension of Operations pact with Delhi and Imphal.

Land and territory are central to both, the maps of Nagalim and the Kuki State underlining this in no uncertain terms.

Both have on more than one occasion demonstrated how effectively their writ and stand run over the territory etched on their respective maps. Competing forces, no doubt, with no middle of the road approach seen.

Now with elections to three North East States, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura over, pressure is sure to mount on Delhi by either group to take things to the next level.

The Sangai Express had anticipated such a development in an earlier commentary in this column and the signal sounded by the UPF and the United Naga Council should not come as a surprise to any keen political observer of the State and the region.

The massive mandate received by the Naga People's Front in the hustings at Nagaland is an indication of how the party managed to steal the thunder from the Congress by bandying the Indo-Naga issue.

Rest assured, the NPF led DAN Government will shift its focus on Delhi now.

The Kukis or rather the SoO signatories, the KNO and the UPF, may not have had any stake as such in the election to the three North East States, but now that elections are over, the SoO groups are likely to pile on the pressure on Delhi to kickstart the political negotiation, which has been kept in abeyance under one reason or the other all these years.

Which way the dice will roll is anybody's guess, but central to the outcome of the political negotiation between the IM faction of the NSCN and the SoO signatories will be Manipur.

This is where the political maturity of the political establishment and the people as a whole will be put to test.

A mini-India, a place inhabited by different ethnic groups and communities, each with its own distinct and 'unique' history, Manipur is this and something more.

With different ethnic groups asserting their own 'uniqueness' and etching the divide spawned by the competing forces on land and territory, which is inseparable from the identity of any group of people, the coming days will test the social and political entity called Manipur.

After the Naga People's Convention and the Senapati Declaration of 2010, Alternative Arrangement is the term that is fast gaining currency with the United Naga Council.

While Delhi and Imphal have not been clear on this term, the UNC has been consistently clear on what the Alternative Arrangement is all about, though the nitty gritty and the details are yet to be spelt out.

In broad terms, the Alternative Arrangement means an alternate administrative arrangement for the Nagas and the places, which they claim to be the sole owners of, outside the Government of Manipur and pending a final settlement to the Indo-Naga political dialogue.

The interesting part however is the demand for a Kuki State, as sketched and claimed by the Kuki State Demand Committee.

The overlapping interests on land and territories should be clear from the map which has been issued by the Committee.

How Delhi and Imphal negotiate their way through the competing forces, including those who have stood by the understanding of Manipur as a geo-political reality, will be interesting to watch.