Around 110 people have expired so far in the 50-day long ethnic strife in Manipur. Home Minister Amit Shah has convened an all-party meeting to discuss the situation on June 24.It is nobody’s case to suggest that Shah will be keen to court the opposition parties. Since 2014, consensus building has not been a forte for the BJP-led regime. And both sides are to be blamed.
The Congress party has been generally keen to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi see defeat than resolving any problems during the last nine years. Close on the heels of Home MInistry’s official announcement about the meeting, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sought to slam the BJP government and PM Modi in particular on Thursday.
“Manipur has been burning since 50 days, but the Prime Minister remained silent. An all-party meeting was called when the Prime Minister himself is not in the country! Clearly, this meeting is not important for the Prime Minister,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted about the June 24 meet.
His words certainly evoke any positive vibes. It’s not clear yet whether Congress should attend the meeting or stay away from it.
The opposition leaders who will participate in the June 24 meeting could have a clear intention–Let’s listen to them (Shah and his team), but we hope the BJP fails.
The government side is expected to list out some of the follies of Congress era such as poppy cultivation and nexus of ultras with state politicians. The Congress also allegedly pursued an appeasement formula with almost
all groups and generally thrived with its adhocism.
Jawahar Nehru’s words about Assam and the region in 1962 still haunt the people here.
The BJP leaders had earlier alleged that through 2018 the Congress and its friends tried to use ‘NRC as a political issue’. In 2020, when the CAA really came, the debate and protests were orchestrated
on a faulty ground that it was anti-Muslim.
In 2021, one Arunachal Pradesh BJP leader had said, “If the Congress party took a harder stand on China, the people of Arunachal Pradesh would have slept more peacefully”.
Of course, the Congress party keeps taking credit for the Mizo Accord of 1986 but the story is ‘half-told’. In less than two years of the Accord, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi dismissed and allegedly
humiliated Laldenga (former rebel leader and ex-Chief Minister) so that the state could have a Congress government. The BJP did its part rather unceremoniously in Arunachal Pradesh in 2016 and 2017and had toppled Congress dispensation.
On June 24, will they talk about the Naga peace parleys — stalled for the last four years without any substantial reason and rhyme ? The fact of the matter is Solution to the vexed Naga issue and an early final peace pact after years of negotiations would have had a soothing impact on the overall northeast situation especially after the violence in Manipur. The Nagas of Manpur despite being courted by Kukis have abandoned the perceived Tribal-cum-Christian Bandwagon and instead decided to work for ‘upholding territorial integrity’ of Manipur state along with Meiteis — mostly Hindus.
Lt Gen (Retd) R N Kapur, who served in Nagaland in late 1990s, told IANS recently, “Security forces and others should understand that in the northeast or in Manipur the tribals have a very different psyche. Once they feel threatened, it is a Do and Die situation for them and unless concrete measures are taken to assuage their fears, it is difficult to convince them”.
So, without doubt Amit Shah has a difficult challenge to deal with. He made a four-day visit to the strife-torn state after violence at unprecedented scale erupted, but the measures taken did not yield expected results. The writ of the government and the rule of law is in doubt.
Skepticism now rules the roost. One serving army officer remarked jocularly as houses of VIPs including Central Minister Rajkumar Ranjan Singh were set ablaze. “Manipur is back – where it was; a state where Militancy for long was a low-risk and high-return vocation”.
But in words were hidden the anguish and an element of pain. The state under so-called Double Engine dispensation was going on smoothly since 2017 when the BJP could oust Congress veteran Ibobi Singh as the Chief Minister. Miss India contests or so that happened just in Aprilnow seem a thing of the past. Even private investments were being negotiated and now it will require decade’s time to bring back the same confidence.
The President’s Rule should have come rather easily, but there is a cautious warning – let us not antagonize the majority Meiteis. The state could then land into worse kinds of polarisation. Arms and ammunition looted suggest the lost weapons could have helped set up a small-sized ‘army’ by itself. Senior army officers are camping in the valley but their hands are almost tied as the essential tool Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) is not enforced.
On the other hand, the lives of common people are caught between the state actors and the non-state actors.People’s protest and anguish at all levels are well supported by propaganda and these getenhanced as they are reminded of ‘system failures’ and decades of misgovernance, government neglect and immense corruption. Where will be the meeting point between flamboyant Home Minister and the opposition parties especially the Congress, which sees Manipur crisis as a God-sent opportunity to tell the rest of India what a real Double Engine regime can do? Incidentally, Shah’s all-party meeting on June 24 comes hours before all BJP leaders led by PM Modi will jump into the whirlpool of social media and TV-bytes blasting Congress for the Emergency.
(Nirendra Dev is a New Delhi-based journalist. Views expressed are personal)
