The Greater Lim connection :: A job for Mr Chidambaram
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 03 2011 -

Contrasting reception committee for the Chief Minister and Home Minister at Senapati on Nov 2 2011 - Pix ::TSE

Things have certainly moved fast in the last 48 hours or more precisely after the pact between the State Government and the Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee was inked at 12 am of November 1.

The three days total bandh called by the United Naga Council and ably supported by the All Naga Students' Association, Manipur besides the ongoing economic blockade (counter blockade prior to the inking of the pact) and the visit of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram are all inextricably tied to the issues raised by the Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee in the form of the demand to upgrade Sadar Hills to the status of a full fledged district and this is what makes it interesting given the fact that the SHDDC has already signed a truce pact with the State Government and has suspended its record breaking 93 days economic blockade on the National Highways.

The embers of the 93 days economic blockade thus continue to smoulder and this is more than enough indication that the shadow casts by the Sadar Hills issue runs long, much beyond the question of upgrading a geographical area to the status of a full fledged district.

Keeping aside the question of whether the "ancestral land" point raised by the UNC and other Naga frontal organisations is legitimate or not, it is obviously clear that the stiff opposition raised against the October 31 MoU is based on the premise that it runs contrary to the first step towards the end purpose of a Greater Lim-Alternative Arrangement for the Nagas living in Manipur.

Back in 1971/72 the impediments or factors that stopped the Government from announcing Sadar Hills as a full fledged district may have come from the question of 'ancestral land' in contrast to 'migrant population' or to put it more crudely 'refugees' and while this may still act as a sort of motivating factor to some, this point has metamorphosed to the question of creating a Greater Lim of which the Alternative Arrangement model is the first, tangible step.

Senapati district as it stands today, occupies an important place on the map of a Greater Lim and any attempt to carve out a slice of its territory has come to be interpreted as being blasphemous to the very idea and concept of bringing the 'ancestral land' of the Nagas under one administrative unit.

It is in the backdrop of this brief summation that the present stand of the UNC ought to be understood and studied. The destination Imphal task of the Home Minister is cut out.

The job of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will therefore entail much more than merely studying the impact of the economic blockade(s) in terms of the material losses suffered by the people, though this is by no means very important.

A meaningful insight will invariably mean finding the connect between the present situation in Manipur to the demand raised by the NSCN (IM) to territorially dismantle large tracts of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and pave the way for a Greater Lim.

And it goes without saying that any attempt to study and understand this point should rest on the premise that the Government of India cannot and should not forget the existence of a social and political entity called Manipur. The integrity of Delhi should not mean compromising with the integrity of Manipur for this would amount to forgoing its duty as a Nation.

It is on this given that Delhi should proceed while politically engaging any groups of people in the North East in general and Manipur in particular. The more than 90 days wait for Delhi to send its man to Imphal to study the situation will bear fruit if this all important point is kept in mind, or else it will amount to pouring fuel on smouldering emotions and sentiments and such a situation will not be desirable.

As things stand today, there are questions and rightfully so on what Delhi has been doing all these days. It would be in the fitness of things to lay down certain points very clearly.

The overwhelming sentiments of anger and frustration enveloping the people who have been at the receiving end of the economic blockade for more than 90 days and counting is as much as against the blockade per se, as against the lackadaisical attitude and approach of the Government to the issue at hand.

Each extra rupee that the man on the street has to shell out to buy a kilogram of potatoes, each single hour that a man has to spend in a serpentine queue to buy fuel at a petrol depot is akin to robbing each and every single vestige of self respect that he has and the Government can ignore this only at their peril.