Manipur's development blockade

The people of Manipur have had a hard summer. The price of petrol in the black market is Rs 150 per litre. Diesel costs Rs 110. A filled LPG cylinder ranges between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000--when you can get it. The price of kerosene has gone up from Rs 35 to Rs 65 over the last few days. Militant groups--whether Kuki, Naga or Meitei--are raking it in: they levy a tax of Rs 2 on every Rs 100 spent in the state and this has recently been raised to Rs 5. Traders too are making hay. The only people who're hurting are ordinary, hapless citizens, waiting for life-saving medicines to be airlifted or wheat or rice.

The All-Naga Students' Association launched the blockade in Manipur on April 12 to protest against elections to six autonomous district councils in the hills. The Nagas, who inhabit the hills, feel the Manipur (Hill Area) District Council Act (Third Amendment) 2008, under which the election was to have been held, takes away the powers of the tribal people. The Meiteis, mostly Vaishnavites who occupy the valley and are a dominant power centre in Manipur, would like to bring the Nagas to heel. Differences between the Nagas and the Meiteis, between Naga tribes like HoHo, Angami, etc, and between communities like Kuki and Naga have been deliberately deepened and manipulated by political leaders as part of identity and caste politics in the North East. So, when the Nagas objected to the district council elections on the ground that the Act under which the polls were being held undermined the traditional tribal elders' authority, the Meiteis, led by Okram Ibobi Singh, chief minister of Manipur, merely shrugged and said: "Do your worst." This led to a week-long blockade, initially.

Left to themselves, the Nagas may have tired after a spell, giving up the blockade. But an incident intervened. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak Muivah chief Thuingaleng Muivah was in India, and in the newly discovered spirit of friendship with New Delhi, expressed the wish to go to his village, Somdal, in Manipur's Ukhrul district.

For those who don't know much about the politics of the Nagas, Muivah, who is considered the supreme leader of the Nagas and has been living in exile outside India to fight for a Naga "nation", is now holding talks with India to create a Greater Nagaland or Nagalim--a state carved out of the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and other states in the North East. Obviously, no state is going to allow this. Nor is the central government too keen to roil the waters, but understandably, it would rather that Muivah continued to hold a dialogue with it, instead of the government of Myanmar.

Anyway, Muivah's proposed visit to Somdal made the Manipur government (which is a Congress (I) one, by the way) see red. On the day he reached the border of Manipur and Nagaland, the Manipur police commandoes opened fire, killing some Nagas and badly injuring members of a welcome party of Naga elders, there to escort Muivah.

Why did the central government permit Muivah to go to Manipur? As Home Minister P Chidambaram said, no one can be prevented from travelling to the village of his birth if he wants to, no matter where the village might be. The incident hardened positions. After a couple of days, Muivah was persuaded to return without visiting his village, and a tense situation was defused. The Meiteis, meanwhile, have decided to show the Nagas who the boss is. The Nagas, on their part, say they control the two national highways that lead to Manipur and they will decide who and what will use the roads.

A cabinet committee on security discussed this issue and decided to deal with the situation very, very tactfully. Thankfully, Muivah doesn't believe that the blockade is an India-backed conspiracy, yet. But a combination of the persuasive powers of Pranab Mukherjee, Chidambaram and A K Antony was unable to make Okram Ibobi Singh a little more charitably disposed towards Muivah: He flatly refused to let him visit.

And why should he? Okram Ibobi Singh is the current darling of Manipuris. They see their gallant chief minister ready to battle with uncivilised Nagas to retain the "sovereignty" of the state.

The irony should be lost on no one. It is under this very chief minister that the roads and highways leading to Manipur are in a state of such disrepair that the wheels of trucks frequently get stuck in the rutted mud. Manipur raises no revenue: It gets 90 per cent of its development funds from the Centre. Whatever happens to this money. But these questions, no one wants to ask. It is the rights of the Meiteis that must be protected.

There isn't much that the Centre can do, beyond watching and counselling. Although mediation is on, there is no evidence that the blockade is going to be lifted soon. Why can't the political issue in the North East be development, instead of identity? All Indians must ask themselves this question.