Last day of Feb has come and gone : Fate of the SoO pact
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 07, 2024 -

The Suspension of Operation pact has indeed come a long way.

First inked between the Centre and the Kuki militant groups in 2005, it was only later in 2008 that a somewhat reluctant Congress led Government at Imphal came on board and since then it has been an exercise of reviewing the pact by the last day of February every year and extending it for another year.

What progress the supposedly peace process has made can only be known to New Delhi, the SoO outfits and maybe to a certain extent Imphal.

What however is clear is the point that no one seems to know why the SoO pact was signed in the first place, given that the SoO outfits were not exactly at ‘war’ with the Government of India.

How does one ink a peace pact with an entity which has never raised the voice of revolt ?

This is where numerous theories have been doing the round and which have gained more currency after Manipur went up in flames on May 3, 2023, after the now infamous Tribal Solidarity March organised by the All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur.

Hours before Manipur, save for the Naga dominated districts, was completely engulfed in flames, one could see gun toting elements marching towards Torbung, obviously as participants of the solidarity march, before the said place was systematically attacked, the inhabitants driven out and the houses set on fire.

The process of identifying houses belonging to Meitei people, picking them out, setting the houses on fire and levelling them flat to the ground at Churachandpur town followed not long after Torbung went up in flames and common sense says that the acts of arson and destruction could not have been carried out sans the backing of the armed cadres belonging to the SoO outfits.

Imphal and the other valley districts retaliated only late in the evening and this was on May 3, 2023 and fast forward to October 31 of 2023 and the sniper rifle that was fired and which killed the Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Moreh Police, Chingtham Anand Kumar could not have been fired by a novice in the use of fire arms and it had all the writings of a trained man pulling the trigger.

No village volunteers would have had the expertise nor the guts to engage with fully armed security personnel, belonging to both the State armed forces and Central forces, in a fire fight and what happened at Moreh for days after the assassination of the said police officer and the arrests of some suspects, should testify this line of reasoning.

It was in line with this reality that the Manipur Legislative Assembly unanimously resolved to approach the Centre to abrogate the SoO pact.

This was on February 29, 2024 and earlier the State Government during a Cabinet meeting on March 10, 2023 had suspended the pact with two outfits of the SoO outfits, the Kuki National Army and the Zomi Revolutionary Army.

That this did not impact on the actual status of the pact is clear to all, but Imphal did convey a strong message that it was not ready to take things lying down in the face of rampant encroachment on Protected Forests and the large scale protests that were mobilised against the eviction drives of the Government.

The hands of some powerful and influential entity was obvious and it is this which has prompted many organisations to raise the ‘abrogate SoO’ call and the connect between immigrants and SoO outfits cannot be ruled out.

This is something which New Delhi must have noted, for it was no one less than Union Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who have raised the flag of mass scale immigration from across the border as one of the reasons for the ongoing clash between the Meiteis and the Kukis.

Again one should also take note of the decision of the Centre to suspend the Free Movement Regime and to fence the entire length of the Indo-Myanmar border.

This much is clear but what has added another dimension to the SoO pact is the cloud of uncertainty, given that there has been no formal announcement on its extension, even though February 29 has come and gone.

For the past 15 years the SoO pact has been extended by one year on the last day of February, but a deafening silence has marked the last day of February this year.

The coming Parliamentary elections may be cited as one reason for no formal announcement being made so far, but remember three general elections have been held in 2009, 2014 and 2019 after the SoO pact was signed in 2008.

Why the silence now and also important to note that it was Chief Minister N Biren who announced on the floor of the Assembly on March 5 that the involvement of SoO cadres in the ongoing violence is certain.

And hereby hangs a tale.