Charting out a roadmap to peace : Spurt in surrender, the answer ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 18, 2013 -

To Delhi and Imphal, not to speak of the Assam Rifles and the Army, the recent spurt in the surrender of underground cadres is obviously their calling card to claim that something indeed is being done to chart out the roadmap to peace. Lesser number of militants out there in the jungles and elsewhere should obviously mean an erosion in the strike power of the armed outfits.

This much is true. But then saying that Manipur has started its journey towards the elusive peace would amount to jumping the guns.

Numbers do matter, no doubt, but the question of bigger importance is whether the Governments, at the Centre and at the State level, have been able to successfully sell the idea of peace as peace is understood universally.

The natural follow up to any cease fire pact or hostility is a political negotiation and it would be interesting to see the line along which the negotiation will follow.

On whose behalf are the cadres, who have surrendered so far, going to negotiate with the Government ?

Will it be a case of negotiating for themselves or will it entail something more ?

The answer is not yet clear but what is amply clear is that the Government does not seem to have a clue on how the negotiation will proceed. This is where the slip between the recent spurt in the surrender of militants and the peace process emerges.

Is the Government merely satisfied with reducing the number of militant outfits, waging a war against the Nation, or is it sincerely looking to chart out a roadmap to peace ?

And more importantly, have the cadres, who have surrendered so far, laid down their arms to walk the journey towards peace or is it another strategy to strike a deal for themselves ?

All the questions fall in the realm of speculations, no doubt, but this does not really augur well for the place and the people as a whole.

The concept or understanding of reaching out to the people just does not seem to have catch on with the Government.

Smoking the peace pipe, grand announcements that the issues confronting Manipur and her people cannot be resolved through the guns or the might of the military, but yet continuing with the process of militarising the place and continuing with an Act like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and clearly speaking in two tongues cannot get more clear than this.

The Government needs to demonstrate that it is more than ready to move beyond lip service.

Even as a number of militants have come overground to ink peace deals with the Government, there are others who continue to wage the bush war for a cause they have espoused all these years.

Even as political dialogues have been proceeding with some armed groups in the North East region, notably with the NSCN (IM), there is as yet no concrete sign to show that a deal is about to be struck anytime.

More importantly, even as ceasefires have been inked left, right and centre with a number of armed groups, the people continue to live under a climate of fear and apprehension.

Why is it that the Delhi is still under the impression that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is necessary at Nagaland, though the cease fire pact with the IM faction of the NSCN was signed more than 15 years back with the Khaplang faction of the same outfit following suit some years later ?

Take this scenario and superimpose it on the areas where the Kuki armed groups, which have entered into the Suspension of Operations pact with the Governments, have their sway and the picture becomes clearer.

Mistaking the recent spurt in the surrender of armed cadres with etching the roadmap to peace would not only be an error of judgement but would expose the Government as utterly failing to read the reality at the ground level.