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Manipur campaign : Militants rule the roost

	April 12, 2004

In Manipur, where the polling is slated for April 20 and 26 for two parliamentary seats (Inner Manipur and Outer Manipur), politicians are findings it difficult to campaign without fear of militants. Unable to campaign under the shadow of the militant gun, they have urged the Election Commission to reschedule polling in the two constituencies if it wanted to prevent bullets from prevailing over ballots.

Leaders who attended a meeting convened by chief electoral officer V. Chibber last week, said it was unlikely that the Lok Sabha poll would be free and fair if militant groups continued to interfere in parties’ choice of candidates and issues.

The meeting resolved to pressure the Election Commission to reschedule the elections or arrange for the deployment of 200 additional companies of paramilitary forces. The national political parties apprised their leaders in New Delhi of the decision.

The Okram Ibobi Singh government recently asked for 200 additional companies of paramilitary forces for the elections. However, Delhi agreed to send only 79 companies. The chief minister convened an all-party meeting last week to discuss the subject.

Observers note that the Okram Ibobi Singh-led Secular Progressive Front (SPF) government in Manipur has chosen to tread the safe path - keep quiet on the face of a militant ban on poll-related activities.

Barring an appeal by Ibobi Singh to the outfits during an election rally last week, the SPF government is yet to make an official reaction to the restrictions imposed by the underground groups. Ibobi Singh had appealed to the militant groups “not to disrupt the democratic process of holding the parliamentary elections”.

The United National Liberation Front (UNLF) clamped a “ban” on the elections this week, describing the process as a “meaningless” exercise. The group asked the people to boycott the poll to show the international community that they were against “Indian colonial rule”.

Two other banned organisations, the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) and the Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF), imposed restrictions on the BJP and the ruling Congress campaigning in the state for different reasons.

The KYKL, which takes its role as crusader and vigilante seriously, said state BJP chief and Inner Manipur candidate Th. Chaoba Singh was “an agent of the Indian government” and anybody found campaigning for him would be shot dead. The group asked the BJP to either expel him or resign itself to an election without the freedom to campaign.

The RPF clamped a ban on the Congress’ electoral campaign, accusing the Secular Progressive Front coalition of failing to check violation of human rights by security forces.

There has been no electioneering in Inner Manipur since the UNLF announced its diktat. Outer Manipur constituency has, however, been relatively unaffected. A team of officials is in New Delhi to apprise the Election Commission and the Centre of the situation.

A minister who is close to Ibobi Singh described the security arrangements in the state as “skeletal” and said these could not ensure a free and fair poll.

“Under the prevailing circumstances, the elections will never be free and fair. Holding the elections properly is the responsibility of the Election Commission and the Centre. Hence, the state government is demanding either rescheduling or adequate central forces,” he said.

In the Outer Manipur constituency, too, the proscribed outfit, United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF), had called for boycott of the NCP candidate and sitting MP, Holkhomang Haokip.



The Issues

The issues in the elections to the Manipur Inner and Outer parliamentary constituencies on 20 and 26 April have been simplified and reduced to a language everybody in this insurgency-torn state has come to understand so well - violence.

The two major parties in contention, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress find themselves in rough weather on account of bans imposed separately by two underground organisations, the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup and the Revolutionary People’s Front. The impact of these bans ought to be much less in the reserved Manipur Outer constituency, but because seven Assembly segments of the valley district of Thoubal, as well as the entire Jiribam sub-division of Imphal east, together constituting a fourth of the total electorate of 7,92,600 are included, the bans can bring about dramatic swings.

All of a sudden, all the numerous and endemic crises the state is faced with have been relegated into the background, tragically just at a time they could have been best addressed. The crippling fiscal crunch, the hot issue of ushering in quality education, the depressing power shortage, inadequate tap water, unemployment, bad health infrastructure, poor roads, corruption and for that matter the very question of negotiated settlement of insurgency, have been rendered redundant.

All eyes are now on the BJP and the Congress, not out of any sympathy, but to watch who would blink first and capitulate. This is the only remaining, simple but profound, one line election issue. A silent perversion has overcome Manipuri society. The public as well as the media have grown capable of taking voyeuristic interest in extremely grave situations. Hence, there have been negligible commentaries or opinion on the matter, only speculation on what might happen.

The feeling one gets is of everybody booking himself or herself a ringside seat so as not to miss the action. Such is the nature of the alienation of the public from the game of politics.

The KYKL’s grudge against the BJP candidate, Th. Chaoba Singh, is not new although the background is only a matter of speculation. The militant organisation had also banned his candidature in the last parliamentary elections, when he fought on the Manipur State Congress Party ticket. He defied the ban and won the elections, largely because then the MSCP was the ruling party.

Chaoba defected to the BJP since and is now contesting on its ticket. The KYKL this time not only pronounced a death sentence on Chaoba and banned his candidature, but also vowed vengeance on party workers supporting him.

The last threat is having its desired effect and ground level workers are distancing themselves from the party. Some, including prominent officials, have resigned.

Chaoba, however, is not quitting. Fortunately for him, some members of the BJP’s old guard, who had left the party protesting the extension of the cease-fire between New Delhi and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim into Manipur territory, have returned to the party at its time of crisis, to back Chaoba’s defiant stance. The most prominent among them is Col (rtd) H Bhubon Singh. The RPF’s ban on the Congress, by comparison is of more recent origin. The stated reason for its enmity with the Congress is that as a ruling party in the state, it has been allowing gross human rights violations and fake encounters by the Army.

There has been a public uproar on this issue, especially after the spate of 11 “custodial killings” by Central forces after their arrests without “arrest memos”, during the extended Yaoshang (Holi) festival holidays in March. Many of the victims have since been proven innocent.

The Congress does not have a candidate in the Outer constituency as the seat had to be sacrificed to the Nationalist Congress Party as per the terms of the alliance drawn up by Sonia Gandhi and Sharad Pawar, much to the chagrin of the MPCC. The Congress now is faced with the unenviable prospect of drawing a blank from Manipur.



Tripura

In keeping with tradition, the Marxists-ruled state of Tripura is witnessing pre-poll violence again. Workers and supporters of both the ruling CPM and Opposition Congress and BJP have sustained serious injuries over the past few days in alleged attacks by rival political parties and militants.

Reports of National Liberation Front of Tripura militants intimidating tribal voters have also poured in from the interior areas. Police sources said two BJP workers, Haradhan Debnath and Sanjit Debnath, were injured in an alleged attack by CPM workers at Magurcherra in Sabroom subdivision of South Tripura.

However, the CPM workers named in the FIR filed by the BJP candidate for the East Tripura seat, Pulin Dewan, have not been arrested so far.

Alleging that the police are acting in a partisan manner, BJP general secretary Tamal Kanti Deb said they would file a formal complaint with the Election Commission. He also alleged that CPM workers had assaulted three other workers of the party during Union minister for water resources Bijoya Chakraborty’s recent tour. He said Sabroom police had not taken any action despite requests by the minister. In another incident last week, a panchayat chairperson of the CPM, Pritika Chakma, and her party colleagues had survived an NLFT attack by fleeing.