Meet bats for honourable solution to conflict
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, October 29 2023: A one-day public convention on 'Manipur-India Conflict and Solution' organised by Indigenous People's Organisation Manipur (IPOM) on Sunday at Imphal College jubilee hall has resolved to press the government for initiating political dialogue with non-state actors for an honourable solution to the Manipur-India conflict.

Former acting chairman of Manipur Human Rights Commission Khaidem Mani moderated the convention which was attended by IPOM president advocate Y Devadutta as functional president.

Manipur University history department's retired professor N Joykumar, IGNTU-RCM political science department's faculty member Dr Homen Thangjam and Hueiyen Lanpao resident editor Dr Khaidem Athouba also participated as resource persons.

Addressing the gathering, advocate Y Devadutta said that the public convention was organised considering the present situation in the state.

With the changing time, there is the need to change the outlook of people in order to participate in the global race of development and any movement needs to adapt to the changes.

Several precious lives have been lost in the movement and conflict that begun from the 60s and 80s.Many women have lost their dignity, many promising youths killed and the society lost uncountable academicians.

Several such movements and conflicts across the world had been resolved through political dialogues and as such, a strategy in this line is needed to resolve the conflict in Manipur too.

The convention is an attempt to explore possibilities of resolving the conflict honourably through political dialogue, he said.

IPOM general secretary Rakesh Moirangthem said that Manipur has been part of the Union of India for the last 74 years following the "infamous" Manipur Merger Agreement of 1949, which was signed under duress on October 15, 1949 .

Youth, who opposed the manner in which Manipur was forced to merge with the Union of India, rose up and formed several organisations.

The movement turned into an armed revolution in the 70s which marked the beginning of an armed conflict with the Government of India.

The armed revolution gave an appeal for action and romanticism among the youth.

A strong wave of the ideologies of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Ze Dong also inspired youth while many intellectuals favouring these thoughts also emerged in the society.

A new pattern of conflict could be seen in the early 90s onwards in which the armed groups started crackdown on drugs and alcohol abuse, immoral activities, crimes against women and children, and corruption.

It significantly helped in curbing anti-social activities in the society and the new campaign sent a strong message for social reformation as part of the revolution alongside the armed conflict with the Government of India.

Unfortunately, the movement seems to have lost the vigour at present.

The number of UG groups has also increased, which acts as a major deterrence in unifying these armed groups.

Even though early 90s saw a unity in the form of Revolutionary Joint Committee (RJC), it failed to catalyse the much needed unity.

Today, these armed groups are facing a big challenge with many factors such as inability to recruit new members, losing foothold among the public, financial constraints, diminishing quality, ideological struggle among others.

This situation saw some changes after May 3 when the present crisis erupted but the future is uncertain.

As the present crisis is subsiding, instances of monetary demand is increasing, which could potentially result in losing public support, he observed.

Keeping in view of the present situation and shifting geo-political landscape, the need to explore new strategies for an honourable solution without changing the objective is felt today, which is why IPOM is organising the public convention, he said, while urging the participants to express their views.

Later, the meet resolved to press the government for initiating political dialogue with non-state actors for an honourable solution to the conflict, to form a Peace Commission to pursue the resolution, and to entrust IPOM to identify and select members of the commission.

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