17th June 18 anniversary : Consult all stakeholders
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 19 2018 -

17th June 18 anniversary or the 17th Great June Uprising, Unity Day.

The list will go on and come 2019 it will be the 18th Great June Uprising, Unity Day and so on.

A clear cut reflection of the group of people who stand by the idea of Manipur as a geo-political reality that any attempt to disfigure the territorial integrity of the State will be opposed tooth and nail.

And this commitment is not confined to June 18 alone but on all the days, the difference being that it is on June 18 every year that thousands come out to pay their homage to the brave souls who sacrificed their lives for the territorial sanctity of the State.

Much water has flown down the Imphal river ever since the mass uprising on June 18, 2001 after the Government of India inserted the words, ‘ceasefire without territorial limits’ to the cease fire pact between New Delhi and the NSCN (IM), but there is no way that June 18 will be forgotten any time soon.

It is this point which should register in the consciousness of New Delhi.

All will certainly remember how the people rose as one, without any push and pull from any direction, and registered their protest on the streets of Imphal on June 18, 2001 and those who had already stepped into the profession of journalism will remember the stormy days 17 years back.

Offices of political parties razed to the ground, the then State Assembly put on fire, the days of curfew, the number of days that media professionals had to stay put in their respective offices since curfew had already been announced and it was not a healthy option to navigate through all the road blocks of burning wooden logs, cut trees piled across the road and put on fire in the dead of the night and the roads strewn with broken shards of glass bottles.

Stay put at one’s work place, eat together and then sleep at the office itself.

This is how the days following June 18, 2001 will be remembered by the media professionals.

More than sure that those days will be recollected by all the media persons and the interesting question is whether Manipur will witness such days again or not.

An apprehension that cannot be just wished away, especially in the backdrop of the highly secretive Framework Agreement signed between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India in August 2015.

Nearly three years down the line and there is no indication that the details of the Framework Agreement will be disclosed or revealed for public consumption.

The highly secretive nature of the agreement has only added to the growing suspicion of the people and this is a point which must have already come to the notice of New Delhi.

Not likely that New Delhi will spill out the content of the agreement anytime at the moment, and this is precisely the reason why the BJP led Government at Imphal need to clearly convey the message that anything that is detrimental to the interests of Manipur will not be acceptable.

The interesting point is, so far no one has spelt out what may be acceptable to Manipur.

This however should not be taken to mean that New Delhi can ink any agreement as it deems fit without consulting all the stakeholders.