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Manipur : Ibobi government on ethnic tightrope |
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The Manipur government found itself staring at another ethnic crisis after the Naga organisation behind the indefinite highway blockade rebuffed its offer of negotiations and the Meitei group that spearheaded the June 2001 uprising against the extension of the Delhi-NSCN (I-M) truce warned of another massive upheaval.
The All Naga Students Association of Manipur, which launched the blockade after the Okram Ibobi Singh Ministry declared June 18 as ‘state integrity day’ to commemorate the 2001 uprising, refused to call off its agitation or even hold talks until the government withdrew the notification. The organisation said the government’s step was tantamount to challenging the community’s aspiration for the integration of all Naga-inhabited areas of the Northeast.
On the other hand, the United Committee, Manipur (UCM), threatened to take to the streets if the government acceded to the Naga community’s demand. ‘The UCM should not be held responsible if another uprising occurs in the event of the withdrawal of the notification on ‘state integrity day’. The government should also end the ongoing economic blockade without further delay,’ Yumnamcha Dilipkumar, the organisation’s secretary, said.
Addressing a function on the fourth Foundation Day of the UCM, Dilipkumar urged the government to send a delegation to Naga-inhabited Senapati district to end the impasse.
Naga activists have already turned away hundreds of goods-laden trucks bound for Imphal from Mao Gate, beyond which lies Nagaland. Prices of essential commodities have increased because of the blockade.
‘The UCM has been maintaining maximum restraint and has no plan to launch a counter blockade because that would only aggravate the situation. But the people’s patience may run out anytime,’ Dilipkumar said.
Ironically, the theme of the UCM’s Foundation Day function was ‘Forgive and Forget’, and most speakers stressed the need to follow this principle to maintain ethnic unity. ‘Let us forgive and forget the mistakes we made in the past. Let us team up to make a new Manipur, a dynamic Manipur,’ said M.K. Binodini Devi, a member of Manipur’s royal family.
Binodini Devi said she was shocked on reading newspaper reports about parliamentarian and former chief minister Rishang Keishing being among the signatories to the memorandum in which some politicians of the state made a case for the integration of all Naga-inhabited areas, including those in Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Food crisis
The heightening food crisis caused by the indefinite highway blockade has prompted the Manipur Human Rights Commission to ask the government for a detailed report on steps taken to restore supplies.
With the food crisis getting worse because of the impasse, an Imphal-based NGO sought the intervention of the State Human Rights Commission.
The rights commission’s directive coincided with a major development in neighbouring Nagaland. The Naga Students Federation (NSF), which had so far extended only moral support to the agitation by its Manipur counterpart, threatened to ‘teach the Okram Ibobi Singh government a lesson’ after a convoy of goods-laden trucks bound for Imphal wound its way through National Highway 39 last week.
Nagaland police escorted the 167 trucks till Mao Gate, on the inter-state border, from where the Manipur Rifles took over.
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