Government vague, cadres clear 'Runaway' rebel leader
- Sangai Express Editorial :: July 12 , 2013 -

Swindled Rs 1.92 cr and disappeared or ran away with the family in tow.

This is the version of cadres from the Lallumba faction of the KCP (MC). Met with an accident.

No question of running away and admitted in a hospital. This is the version of Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam who also holds the Home portfolio.

Central to the two divergent stand is the person widely known as Lallumba, the aliases of Hitendra and Kritibash.

The truth may lie somewhere in between, but it is significant to note that while the cadres of the outfit have given a succinct account of their version, the Deputy Chief Minister failed to do so.

Met with an accident and has been admitted to RIMS, is the explanation given by the man helming the affairs of the Home portfolio, while interacting with a group of media persons one day after the cadres ‘spilled the beans’ that Lallumba, their erstwhile leader, had walked away with Rs 1.92 cr from the corpus fund released by the Government for their rehabilitation.

Maybe the reporters present at the briefing were unprepared or did not expect the Home Minister to talk about Lallumba, under the impression that the briefing would be about the Statehood demand raised by the Kuki State Demand Committee, and hence did not come up with certain relevant questions at that time.

If Lallumba indeed met with an accident, when did it happen ? Where did the accident occur ? How did it happen ? Mr Gaikhangam did not furnish this information.

On the other hand the KCP (MC) cadres have been extremely clear in their stand. According to them, Lallumba went missing from June 9, a point which can be verified from the roll call register at the designated camp which is the 7th Manipur Rifles headquarters at Khabeisoi.

Not at all satisfied with the ‘Met with an accident.

Not run away but admitted at RIMS’, explanation, The Sangai Express contacted some of its sources and that is how the report that Lallumba did meet with an accident on July 5 after withdrawing the money on June 26 or 27 and was admitted to RIMS or JNIMS hit the pages of this paper in the July 11 edition.

He has been discharged, as per the inputs received from the sources, but has disappeared after that. No official statement so far, and this definitely falls somewhere along the line of the Government trying to hedge on the matter and beat around the bush.

It is the manner in which the Government has sought to approach the issue which has more or less made redundant the question of which version is true.

More important now is how tenuous are the recent agreements inked with different armed groups which have come overground to talk rather than fight.

How serious is the Government in taking the talks with the different armed groups to their logical conclusion is a question that has become more urgent and critical in the backdrop of the ‘Lallumba story.’ Trust deficit.

This was certainly in evidence when the cadres outrightly rejected the version trotted out by the Deputy Chief Minister. There were other serious charges raised by the cadres of the group led by Lallumba but for reasons of propriety The Sangai Express did not go into them in detail. Certainly the politics of peace or the politics of political negotiations has taken a nasty and ugly turn here.

It is not only about the leader of a faction running away with a princely amount of money. It is this, of course, but it means much more.

The muck raised by the allegations of the cadres of the KCP (MC) of the Lallumba group should be more than indicative that coming to the negotiating table can entail something more sinister.

Not exactly the way in which meaningful dialogues should proceed. The cadres of the outfit have been very clear while the Government has been very vague.

At the moment the cadres are one step ahead and it is only expected that the Government should back the ‘met with an accident, in hospital’ explanation with concrete evidences.