The United Naga Council's decision to lift its blockade of two crucial national highways leading into Manipur ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Imphal visit this weekend is hardly a cause for relief in the State. The Naga groups ended the 100-day blockade with the threat of another one, if the government made any move in favour of a competing territorial demand by the Kukis. The Kukis are demanding a separate district in an area of Manipur that the Nagas claim as part of their ‘Nagalim' demand. The UNC says it decided to call off the blockade after a meeting with Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on November 22, at which he gave the assurance that the Manipur government would not be allowed to take any unilateral decision on the issue of a Kuki district. Meanwhile, the Kukis have threatened to carry out their own blockade if the promise of a district for them, contained in a written assurance from Chief Minister Ibobi Singh, does not materialise. The rhetoric on both sides is only likely to become more strident as the State heads towards elections, due early next year. Manipur's Congress government appears content to muddle through the conflicting demands, perhaps betting that this is the best course to win the backing of the majority Meitei community in the coming elections. In any case, it does not have an entirely free hand to resolve the issue. The resolution of ethnic territorial demands in Manipur is inextricably linked to the Centre's negotiations with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), a process so opaque since it began in 1997 that it has added much to the suspicions and tensions between the ethnic groups in the region.
A three-day bandh called against the blockade by a Meitei secessionist group — the Kangleipak Communist Party — and a bomb explosion in Imphal on Wednesday that killed one person underline the fact that Manipur is one of the most troubled States in that region today, given its ethnic tensions and a host of insurgencies, run by shadowy militant groups that are little more than criminal gangs. The Centre has shown an alarming disinterest bordering on apathy about Manipur's problems. The only possible excuse is that the UPA government is too beset by its problems to pay attention to a faraway State. Prime Minister Singh's December 3 visit is an opportunity to demonstrate renewed focus on Manipur. He must send a clear message that the politics of blackmail, whether through blockades or bombs, will not be allowed to succeed, and that the way forward is in building an inclusive vision for the region, rather than one based on narrow ethnic identities.
Keywords: Manipur blockade, United Naga Council
Magnification of some individual's propositions into ethnic and genetic evolutions as different from Meitei and futuristic exaggeration is intensifying the organic linkage and dampening the root of three communities(Meitei-Naga-Kuki). Let's not be blindfolded in the agenda of political seperation, cutting a same tree into three pieces. Rotational blockade on the national highways only hightens communal hatred and mistrust against each other. If referendum is proposed as a solution, then it's to be amongst three not two. This is because, the present dispute attaches faith and destiny of three communities not two as discussed. One word cannot be a decisive for another two relative words. Lets wait the Supreme Court verdict, whether so-called Economic Blockade is justified or not. Personal struggle for political blanket should not be misunderstood with common harmony. Let's not expect another 1992. Pro-seperattion party should think logical consensus....!!
It is wrong to differentiate between the Pangals, Assamesees or Garos or Waiphais or Koms or Gangtes or Marings or Tangkhul. Basically there are only to groups the 'blocked' - people of all caste and creed who are suffering and the 'blockers'-- a few people who are stooge of terrorist NSCN(IM) etc. In any case this lifting is not for desire of peace by NSCN(IM) but because of Christmas and to enable the NSCN(IM) to collect taxes from the trucks for Christmas festivals. Be assured that the blockade will commence after Christmas and the new year
This is part of the on going attempt of chrisitinisation of the north east. The Chrisitan nagas want to dominate all the north eastern states and force christianity down the throat of all other tribes. The Hindu majority Meiteis are being blackmailed and threatened by these Nagas using all means. blockade is the latest tool.
The Secular govt of India will not lift a finger to help the Hindus.
If the role had been reversed there would have been an uproar in parliament, the secular press and the secular intellectuals.
Since it is the Hindus who are being oppressed there is total silence.
The opposite-sided pulling effect,one end by the Nagas and the other end by the Kukis with the "Meiteis" in the middle, is going to tear the state one day. If this tension from both ends is going to persist,it would be rather better to give the Nagas & the Kukis their separate states,as they are demanding.Only then the only Meitei-inhabited Manipur would remain free from their persistent pestering.
shri Ibobi prodded the Sadar Hills leadership to push for an economic Blockade for district demand.The UNC responded with a predictable counter blockade.Both went on for more than three months.The meiteis on the other hand blamed the nagas and the kukis for their sufferings.Ibobi widened the ethnic divide between the meitei,the kukis and nagas in the hope of electoral gains in 2012 elections.Wether the price will be too high to pay for the people of Manipur or for Ibobi and his party is yet to be seen.
I guess the esteem editor is not clear about the facts, the term KUKI and SHDDC are not synonymous.
Why not hold a referendum amongst the Nagas & Kukis on whether they want to continue to be part of present-day Manipur? I'm sure we all know what its outcome will be. But then this is a necessary formality to convince the Meitei that the Nagas & the Kukis are adamant it's time they seek a separate destiny and identity apart from those of the repressive and domineering Meiteis. The majority Meiteis should back up their arguments for preserving the integrity of present-day Manipur (at all cost, they add) and DEMAND/HOLD A REFERENDUM....and let that be the basis for resolving the issue once and for all.
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