Told to back off from Highway : Status quo continues
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 25 2023 -

The Sangai Express acknowledged the intent of the Government in opening the Imphal to Mao route on National Highway 2 in an earlier commentary and it still stands, though a corrigendum is in line.

There is no blockade, economic or otherwise on National Highway, and it has been like this, save for the time when the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) would roll up its sleeves and impose a highway blockade, but the blockade is meant for the Meiteis alone.

To say that the highway would be opened without the qualifying term ‘opened for all including the Meiteis’ would have been missing the trees for the woods.

This is the reality and when the Government is more and more identified as a Meitei Government by not only CoTU but also by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), Kuki Inpi, Manipur (KIM) and the Kuki Inpi, Sadar Hills (KISH), it should not have come as too big a surprise that hordes of Kuki people came out on the highway and stopped the MST buses from proceeding further at Gamgiphai near Kangpokpi and at Phougakchao Ikhai on the Moirang-Churachandpur road.

Recalling what happened on December 23 and there is nothing to suggest that the said road stretch would be open to the Meiteis anytime in the near future.

The intention and act of the Government is acknowledged with the rider that it should have come a long time back, but it still begs some question in the face of the fact that the MST buses had to turn back.

A case of the Government failing to read the situation well or a case of just testing the water ?

Either way, it does not speak well of the Government.

Here is a classic case of the writ of the Government having failed to proceed beyond Kangla-tongbi and beyond Moirang and one wonders what further steps Imphal may take to demonstrate that it was just a one off thing and that its writ runs throughout the length and breadth of Manipur.

Not that any Meitei would have taken the land route to go to either Guwahati or Dimapur or Churachandpur, but the attempt of the Government to ring out the message that its buses or vehicles can travel through these stretches is unmistakable but did it do the required homework is the question that comes to mind.

Or was it a case of putting the horse before the cart ?

A case of the Government conveniently forgetting that the Peace Committee formed earlier with much publicity turned out to be a still born child ?

Either way it does not do anything good for Manipur as a whole for in failing to send through the buses, Manipur suffered a huge set back.

And as stated in this commentary earlier, Manipur is recognised with a particularly community.

This is what is deeply disturbing for to many the failure to send through the buses is seen as some sort of a victory for the people who have raised the Separate Administration call.

That the writ of the Government does not extend to the highway should be clear to all.

And this is where one is left wondering what steps have been taken up by Imphal to address this.

Secure the highway. Highway blockade is not something new to Manipur.

The people have seen it all, experienced it all and suffered it all.

But this is the first time that the highway has been blocked to keep off a people belonging to a particular community and with the Government increasingly identified as a Meitei Government, the blockade has also been extended to everything associated with the Government.

This is precisely the reason why the MST buses had to turn back.

No easy answer on what steps should be taken up to deal with the situation, but it cannot go on like this forever.

Remember the longer the clash continues, the more the idea of Manipur will suffer.

There can be no winner but only losers. Close to 200 people on either side have died.

Thousands have been displaced and uncountable number of houses have been razed to the ground.

This is where Delhi should intervene.

This is where Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to speak out and break his self imposed oath of silence.

Let Delhi initiate steps to give new life to the Peace Committee that was formed earlier and see how to take things forward.

And yes responsibility should be fixed and for this one will need to go back to May 3 and study how trouble erupted at Torbung.