Policy Boomerangs MHA's myopic decision paved way for this grim situation
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 14, 2010 -
It is understandable that the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh refused to accept Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's resignation amid the rising criticisms that the death of 76 CRPF jawans in an ambush in Dantewada by the Naxals on April 6 last occurred due to mishandling of the Maoist issue by the Home Ministry.
Criticisms apart, it was the first time after Chidambaram took over as the Home Minister that such a deadly ambush was laid by the Maoists killing so many CRPF personnel in an attack. The resignation issue over, Chidambaram continued to run the ministry. Now two neighbouring states in the North Eastern Region are eyeball to eyeball, and communal tension runs high in Manipur because of one mistake made by the Union Home Minister.
By now Chidambaram would have realized that his consent to the request of NSCN-IM leader Th Muivah to visit Manipur's Naga inhabited areas including his ancestral village Somdal in Ukhrul district was a great blunder. Because of that consent, a crisis prevails in Nagaland-Manipur border which threatens to erupt in bloody violence.
Muivah is still camping in Viswema in Nagaland, a short distance from Mao gate, waiting for an opportune moment to enter Manipur by road forcibly. The state government is determined to ban him from entering the state's territory.
The State Cabinet has reaffirmed and strengthened its decision many times indicating that the government is ready for any eventuality. The most significant point to be noted here is that the people of Manipur, excluding the supporters of NSCN-IM and Muivah, are in complete solidarity with the State government and the State forces in this crisis.
In any issue, whatever it was, in the past, the people and the State government always used to confront each other. But not this time, which is historic in a way. However, we cannot thank the Home Minister and the Centre for this. After all, they are the ones who created these unwanted situations of the present time in Manipur.
If the Home Minister had asked the Chief Minister of Manipur, O Ibobi about the State government's stand on the proposed visit of Muivah to Manipur before he gave his consent, all these trouble and problems could have been avoided. But he did not.
This strengthens the doubts in the mind of the people of Manipur that the Centre seems to show undue favour toward the NSCN-IM, which is an armed insurgent organization that used to wage war against the Government of India and its army before it signed the agreement of ceasefire with the GoI, and indulges in all kinds of unlawful activities, while keeping aside a lawfully established Government of the state of Manipur formed by representatives of the people who had been elected through democratically held elections.
Apart from applying authoritarian tactics in Manipur, while interfering in the state issues, the Centre seems to be taking the government for granted in any matter with the self assumed judgement that the Chief Minister of this tiny NE state would agree with whatever the Centre says or does.
But now those at the Centre know what they thought has turned out to be wrong. The Union Home Ministry finds itself in an unenviable position now with the Government of Manipur seeing no reason to honour the Home Ministry's consent given to Muivah to allow him to visit Naga-inhabited areas in Manipur on one hand, and the NSCN-IM leader refusing to act on the appeal of the Home Ministry to reconsider his proposed visit to Manipur on the other.
The situation as of now is clearly a confrontation between the NSCN-IM, backed by the Government of Nagaland, and the Government of Manipur. If the situation gets still worse than that of May 6 at Mao gate, the responsibility of the Centre, the MHA to be precise, for the whole situation would not be little at all.
The only option before the Centre is to take the responsibility of putting a brake on Muivah's plan to forcibly bulldoze his way into Manipur's territory, which is also unlikely to succeed, rather than taking the responsibility for a bloody mayhem later on.
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