RK Sanayaima speaks out his mind...Destruction of national character tops GoI's agenda
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, October 01 2013: Pointing out that the Indian military has been unleashing all kinds of repressive measures upon the people of Manipur apart from setting up additional police units in order to direct the war against the liberation movement from inside, UNLF Chairman Sana Yaima has stated that despite all the repressive measures, the liberation of Manipur has not been dented a bit.

This is because the Manipuri national character built up over a period of thousands of years is still alive, Sana Yaima said today at Guwahati where he was produced before a special Court of NIA.

The Government of India is now aware of this fact and to destroy the Manipuri national character has become the foremost agenda and strategy of New Delhi.

The focus of GoI's operation in Manipur has shifted to creating divisions and fragmentation of the society.

Animosity and blame game being played among the people of Manipur because of loss of economic productivity and disappearance of employment avenues which are universal characters of being a captive market are results of GoI's strategy aimed at destroying the national character of Manipuri people.

As a part of their strategy, GoI has been grooming a new group of neo middle class people by luring them into IAS and other such administrative posts.

Whereas agricultural land belonging to poor peasants are being usurped for making roads and other construction activities, the Government has been offering Rs one lakh to any candidate who has cleared IAS preliminary test.

This is another game plan of India to break the spirit of Manipuri people and throw the bone of contention between themselves, Sana Yaima asserted.

Using the dreams and illusions of the neo middle class, GoI has been scheming to cover up the principle factors leading to economic downfall of Manipur.

At the same time, GoI, by ensnaring some sections of the people with the bait of OBC and now Scheduled Tribe status has been conspiring to keep the people of Manipur blind to its captive market politics.

Inter-caste and inter tribe conflicts are one inherent weakness of India.

It was with a vision to resolve these conflicts that the Indian people were categorised as ST, SC, OBC, religious minority, general etc.

However, rather than resolving the conflicts, these classifications have further fragmented the Indian people.

Today, India is a country of fragmented societies and divided people, said the UNLF leader.

Employing the same mode of classifications, GoI has been working to divide the people of Manipur into smaller and smaller fragments.

Once classified into different categories, people are pitched against each other in pursuit of quotas and reservations.

Such classifications lack rationale except for the malicious objective of destroying integrity of Manipur.

"What is the politics behind enlisting Kabuis and Rongmeis as separate tribes in the ST list?", Sana Yaima questioned.

Given the facts that even groups identified as ST have been witnessing more and more divisions, the politics of classification would serve no purpose rather it has turned out be a big obstacle in the struggle for building collective strength of Manipur.

The recent campaign by some people to include Meiteis in the ST category would turn out to be bolstering GoI's strategy aimed at destroying the spirit and national character of Manipuri people.

Manipur people need to ponder over the diabolic attempts aimed at creating more and more divisions among the people and ultimately blur the identity of who the real enemy is.

The campaign for inclusion of Meiteis in ST list would generate more small scale conflicts apart from posing greater challenges to the integrity of the land.

Small scale conflicts, if numerous enough, can alter the current of the principal conflict and that is what GoI has been planning for.

Inculcating the notion that Manipuri people cannot survive without some sort of reservation or Manipur cannot survive without support from India is the first step of GoI's strategy to extinguish the indomitable spirit of Manipuri people.

The offer to include Meiteis in the ST list is a trap to make the people of Manipur overlook or forget the treachery of 1949 (Mer-ger Agreement) and at the same time pitched the people in an internal battle for reservation and access to resources.

Conceding that the revolutionary movement of Manipur has seen ups and downs, Sana Yaima asserted that there are two types of contradictions in Manipur.

One is the internal contradictions seen in the society and the other is the national contradiction between Manipur and India.

The contradiction is at the national level and as such, no groups either in process of political dialogue or under suspension of operation pacts purportedly signed for 'peace' defined by India would never succeed in resolving the national contradiction.

GoI is well aware of this fact.

That is why, GoI is giving little importance to all those groups under suspension of operation pacts, Sana Yaima asserted.

Driven by a conviction that the national contradiction cannot be resolved by agreements signed between GoI and one/two group(s), the UNLF has been advocating since 2005 that people should be involved in exploring ways for resolving the contradiction.

The revolutionary movement is not for any particular group.

It is for the mass.

That was why, UNLF put up the proposal for plebiscite.

But both GoI and the State Government, while consistently preaching about peaceful resolution of the conflict situation, opposed tooth and nail to all people's movement for holding plebiscite.

By creating antagonistic situation where Kukis would demand Kuki State, Nagas alternative arrangement and Meiteis ST status, GoI has been plotting to make the people of Manipur give up the larger national question and create internal conflicts.

It's time for all the people of Manipur that all these contradictory demands came out from a single table of New Delhi, Sana Yaima stated.

To UNLF's view, the national contradiction is the most crucial which needs to be resolved first.

In order to build up necessary capacity to resolve the national contradiction, people should work to resolve the secondary contradictions reasonably.

"If we fail in resolving the secondary conflicts, we would not be able to garner necessary strength required for resolving the national contradiction", Sana Yaima added.

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