The hard flaws we need to correct

Oken Jeet Sandham *

UPPK signs MoU with India and Manipur Govt at Imphal on May 24 2013 :: pix - David Mayum

The frank admission by the outgoing Governor of Arunachal Pradesh Gen (Retd) JJ Singh that problems in the eastern districts of his State would come to an end if the Naga political issue was resolved should be taken note of. He was also critical of the failure to implement the surrendered policies in the insurgency- stricken states of the region. In fact, he has touched the core issues that need serious examining.

It is a known fact that most of the issues facing the region today are because of not resolving of the Naga political issue and yet no one still knows when and how the issue will be resolved once and for all. But looking from the point of current process, it is easier said than done. There are so many stakeholders in it today.

It appears sometimes getting bogged down or stagnant. Unexpected elements also started penetrating deep into the core and trying to become part of the system. Common men cannot see this development with their naked eyes.

Yes, it is clichéd but not stereotypical. Yet the issue should not defy solution but to remove the unexpected elements weakening the core may not be an easy task. Certain type of patience is required; otherwise the entire subjective system has to suffer.

The people who lead their organizations could also suffer when the institutions they built over the decades failed to enjoy the popular support from the masses. The revolutionary ideals and cultures have also fast degenerated over the years mainly because no proper trainings, political classes and fundamentals of a revolutionary organization were imparted to many youth who joined the organizations in 90s onward. Lack of culture seemed to be amongst many of them.

We started hearing various heinous crimes rather committed by many underground cadres and such news was not heard of in those earlier days. These unwanted activities have become one of the main root causes eroding the integrity of the organizational image and the respect and command they enjoyed have fast reduced to the lowest ebb. It is very unfortunate.

And one should not forget that prolonging solution will only invite more erosion in their organizations in this 21st Century. The leaderships of the organizations need to step in to streamline the flaws.

Regrettably, there are various unseen and seen agencies of the authorities that have also been playing their own cards to weaken such organizations. They hardly tried to solve the issues but presuming that they could finish them without knowing various factors associated with such establishments. Many actions of such agencies did not work, instead giving breeding ground for many organizations in the region.

It is very unfortunate that even the Supreme Court had to step in with regard to the alleged "Fake encounters" in Manipur. It is ridiculous that while the state police forces would kill few cadres here and there, there were reports of alleged nexus between the state politicians and the various militant organizations.

Various insurgency-infested states in the region failed to tackle unemployment issues, besides they could not frame any meaningful policies and programs for the development. Interestingly, the states would now start blaming the underground organizations for the failures to develop their States. They would start painting and manufacturing stories that developmental activities could not take off due to insurgency and would jack up estimates for every project. They would fight for money from Delhi in the name of combating insurgency.

In fact, corruption culture in every institution became a system and one was made to believe that you must pay certain amount of lakhs of rupees for certain jobs. Nobody was bordered nor could anyone think that such activities were illegal. Unfortunately, such activities become today as no more under the table, it is now over the table business.

Finally, our frustrated youth turned towards the underground organizations as a means of their survival and most of them joined it with a lot of unexplained frustrations and humiliations with sometimes vengeful minds. "Who is responsible for this state of affairs?" For God's sake, don't blame the "underground people."

The Bottom-line:

Of late there have been surrendered ceremonies in Manipur. The Government framed certain packages to rehabilitate the surrendered underground cadres. But the problem is surrenderees from time to time alleged that the surrendered policies were not implemented.

If an entire organization surrendered to the government, then there is no problem. But this is a very rare case. Otherwise, the most important thing that the Government fails understand is the security of the surrenderees because they would be surely in the radars of their respective organizations. Therefore, before initiating any program for underground people to surrender, their foolproof security should be first put in place.

At the same time the surrenderees should not be used to hunt down their comrades who are still serving in their organizations as such actions will surely prove counterproductive. In fact such attitude will only make others in the organizations think the authorities cannot be trusted.

The surrenderees should be kept in designated camps with proper security and they should in no way be allowed to mingle with civilians. There were allegations in the past that surrenderees were used as khansas, cooks and forced them to do a lot of household manual works by the state police officers.

There were also shocking revealing that in most of the time, the surrenderees were allegedly given junk foods. All these factors compelled them once to take to the streets. The Government should immediately change their attitudes towards the surrenderees. Otherwise the surrendered ceremonies can be termed as a sort of "drama" to get more money from the Center.