Violence in Manipur: What Went Wrong?
01 Sep, 2001 · 565
Brig SP Sinha highlights the reasons that have prompted the government to adopt a pro-Naga posture
In the middle of June, Manipur went up in flames. The immediate provocation was the agreement signed by the Central Government with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) [NSCN (IM)] to extend the cease-fire by another year without territorial restrictions. The five-point agreement outraged the Manipurs: its very first line said, “The ceasefire agreement is, between the Government of India and the NSCN as two entities, without territorial limits.” This led to spontaneous protests in Imphal; Manipuri youth clashed with the police, and more than a dozen protestors were killed in the police firing. Clearly, the Government had failed to anticipate the depth of feelings of the Manipuris.
Assam
and Arunachal Pradesh into a Greater Nagaland. The Manipuris feared that their state would once again be divided; this was whipped by a causal reply by the then Prime Minister, Mr Gujral, during his visit to Imphal on 22 May 1997 ? to a question whether the solution to the Naga problem lay in breaking up Manipur, Mr Gujral gave an evasive reply, whereas the Manipuris were expecting a categorical ‘No’.
Sri Lanka
. The group brooks no dissent and is as fascist as the LTTE. It has spurned all efforts to arrive at consensus amongst various Naga tribes, church leaders, Naga Hoho and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The unity it seeks is tantamount to imposing its supremacy over all other groups and organizations.
China
. During the current ceasefire, the NSCN (IM) interpreted the ground rules to its own advantage to collect taxes and procure arms to target rival groups like the NSCN (Khaplang) and the Kukis. The bitter fratricidal feud between the Nagas and Kukis has nothing to do with gaining independence; it is aimed at controlling Moreh, a trading centre on the Indo-Myammar border, which is the focal point for the lucrative trade in narcotics.
Pakistan
. He was arrested in
Bangkok
, on 19 January 2000 , for entering the country on a forged passport. He was sentenced to one-year jail for trying to jump bail, but has blamed the Indian Government for his incarceration. He questions the sincerity of the Indian Government, but is silent on his association with
Pakistan
. In its zeal to find a solution, the Government has only complicated the issue further.
It all began in 1994 when the Nagaland Assembly passed a resolution seeking integration of the Naga inhabited areas of Manipur
The insurgency in Manipur has resulted from a sense of discrimination among the Meitis of Imphal valley vis-à-vis Nagas of the Hill districts. The Manipuris, being Vaishnavite Hindus, were targeted by the Naga insurgents as the symbol of the Central Government’s exploitation during the insurgency in the sixties. The Central Government, therefore, gave many concessions to the Naga rebels to win them over, at the cost of the Meitis. This included many measures like barring purchase of land in the hill areas whereas the tribals there could acquire land in the valley. Hill tribes by virtue of their being designated as scheduled tribes, enjoy educational and job reservations which have combined to give them far more places in the All India Civil Services (24 against four in first 20 years), thus making them administrative overlords in Manipur. [This anomaly has now been corrected by giving Meitis the status of “Other Backward Castes”, after the Mandal Commission proposals were implemented.] Similarly, the Manipuri language, which is a medium of communication among many tribes and has a script which is more than a century old, was included in the Eighth schedule only in 1992 after prolonged agitation.
In its zeal to clinch a deal with the NSCN (IM), the Central Government has gone overboard. NSCN (IM) is arguably the oldest and most organized insurgent group in the Northeast. But the character of its struggle has changed. It is no longer on any ideological grounds. The call for independence and self-determination is only a façade to carry on its narcotics trade, gun running, extortion and smuggling. In many aspects, it has acquired the characteristics of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in
The intensity of feelings against the Greater Nagaland concept should have been anticipated by the central leaders and their advisors had they cared to ponder over the past track record of negotiations with the Naga rebels. In the sixties, the so-called Federal Government of Nagaland, broke the agreement on cessation of hostilities and sent its cadres for training to
Equally disconcerting is Muivah’s hobnobbing with
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