Scrap FMR, start border fencing : Selling fabricated tales
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 05, 2024 -

India to scrap Free Movement Regime on India-Myanmar border. Border fencing to be completed in the next 4.5 years.

This is as per a report carried by the Press Trust of India and while this was something far removed from what has been happening at the border town of Moreh in the last many days, it reflects the need of the present reality.

Equally heartening to note was also the news of a driver hired by the Border Security Force who was rescued by Kuki elders and youths and helped to be rescued by the security force and the findings of a research study conducted under the guidance of an Associate Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University which highlighted the biases in the reports carried by five National leading newspapers from May 2023 to August 2023 on the social unrest in Manipur.

These few developments on January 3 were something far removed from what has been happening at different parts of the State since the dawn of 2024, though the ugly remnants of 2023 will continue to haunt the coming days.

This much seems to be assured if one goes by the nonsensical stand adopted by some organisations which have been working overtime to step closer to the demand for a Separate Administration.

It is under this reality that Manipur left behind 2023 but as noted many times earlier in this column, one cannot expect anything coming close to the understanding of normalcy becoming a reality soon.

Even as the report that border fencing would be taken up went viral, came the news from Mizoram that the neighbouring State would not support the proposed move.

Mizoram may have its own reason for taking such a stand, and this is where it becomes important for Manipur to have a clear stand and convey the same convincingly to Delhi.

How Imphal plays its cards in the coming days may prove crucial, in so far as the question of border fencing is concerned, for the primary objective behind the proposed border fencing is not only to check the movement of militants but also to check infiltration from across the border.

And infiltration is already a very vexed issue here in Manipur and the primary reason for the call raised for a National Register of Citizens with the base year kept at 1952.

Taking the people along should be the call of the State Government and how Imphal plays its card can go a long way in shaping how things unfold in the coming days.

Over 8 months of total mayhem. Thousands still displaced and staying at relief centres. Many dead and many still missing.

Obviously Manipur cannot continue like this for longer.

And for the place and the people to emerge from the current impasse victorious, it is important for the Government to walk the path with the people.

How well placed is the State Government to take along the people is the question that follows. No easy answer here, but efforts should be made.

The CSOs on either side may try to reach out to each other, for it is the very set of people who they claim to represent who are suffering.

Already some few well meaning personalities have spoke out on the need to start talking things and one wonders why nothing has been done on how to take off from such observations.

The Government may also try to get in touch with such personalities and see how things may proceed.

It is Manipur which stands to lose the longer the clash continues and it does not need rocket science technology to understand who stands to gain from such a situation.

At the same time it should also be made clear that while protesting against any policies and programmes of the Government is acceptable and Manipur has seen this very often in the past, it was targeting people of one community that was and is unacceptable.

This fact should be registered and for this one would need to revisit May 3 of 2023 at Torbung and Churachandpur.

Imphal retaliated only much late in the evening of May 3, 2023 and this fact should not be covered under the piles of victim stories that have been sold to some interest groups.