Imphal, November 24 2009: Another basic weakness is the lack of sufficient leaders who are competent, courageous and known for integrity and personal sacrifice, and also the non participation in the movement of those considered to be competent.

This lack of unity and strong collective leadership is visible in the present movement against the 23 July Khwai-Keithel Killings.

For example, some constituent-member organisations of the Apunba Lup are not with the Lup in the present movement; rather, they have taken a different stand on the issue.

This does not go well with the common people.

Apunba Lup has not informed the people how this rift came about and whether any effort to resolve the problem was initiated or not.

Another weakness observable is the opposite stands taken by groups of student organisations on the issue of class boycott.

Instead of exploring together a via media that does not weaken the movement on the one hand and does not disrupt academic activities of the students entirely the opposing groups resorted to a verbal duel through the media.

This has created division not only within the student community but also among the guardians and teachers as well which ultimately weaken the strength of the society.

The contradiction that arose as a result of one student group taking the stand of not withdrawing the boycott without achieving some specific objectives of the movement, while another group demanding withdrawal of class boycott outright from the viewpoint of making education a 'free zone' deserves a fair discussion among concerned citizens.

The student groups need to understand together that among the various issues and problems confronting a society or a country at any given point of time, one of them stands out as the principal contradiction which determines the characteristics of the overall situation.

That the principal issue confronting the people of Manipur today is what generally referred to as the 'conflict situation' is agreed by one and all.

Asserting that the Manipur-India conflict arising from the alleged forcible annexation of Manipur by India is the principal issue in Manipur today, the UNLF pointed out that other secondary issues and problems cannot be treated separately or in isolation from the principal issue.

This deserves careful study by student groups.

It is a fact all the academic activities of students today are being conducted within the environment of the 'conflict situation'.

Therefore, it would be unrealistic to carve out education as a 'free zone' undisturbed by the consequences of the war between the two sides of the conflict.

Because the national liberation struggle will become intensified and the Indian government will also take counter measures by deploying more military force.

The Indian Air Force will be used to pour down innumerable bombs on the Manipur valley.

Our universities/colleges/schools will not be discriminated as free zones.

What stand the students should take if students become victims of such bombings? Therefore, in the context of the existing conflict situation, 'making education a free zone' has to be in relative terms, it simply cannot be treated as an absolute category.

The simple reason is that students and academic institutions are inseparable parts of the society at large.

"What is imperative for the student organisations is to collectively explore an arrangement whereby academic activities could be carried on within the conflict situation and at the same time take part in the struggle to save the society.

In this regard, the participation of the entire Palestinian people - not only the old and young, men and women, boys and girls, but also small kids using catapults - in the confrontation against Israeli Army for an independent Palestine is worthy of emulation.

If our people's movement is also built up to such a dimension, no power on earth will be able to suppress it", the outfit stated.

Analysing India's internal situation, the UNLF observed that the second condition and external one, for the victory of the liberation struggle is the sharpening of India's internal contradictions to the extent of disintegration of its strength.

The UNLF expressed this possible scenario as a hypothesis several years ago.

In fact, this internal phenomenon of India is coming into sharp focus, the outfit asserted.

Today's India is no longer the India of Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

Today's India is competing with China on the road to become the world's largest economy.

India is also a leading country in Information Technology, having made significant strides in space technology, nuclear weapons, missile technology while the Indian Army is the third largest army in the world.

However, despite the phenomenal expansion of their economy, despite the advancement in space technology, despite having the third largest army in the world, unmistakable symptoms of internal disintegration is emerging.

During the Nehru era, the Congress party wielded monopoly of state power throughout India.

But with the decline of the Congress party as result of fragmentation and lack of competent leadership, the monopoly of state power is no longer in their hands.

Other parties have captured power in several states of India where the Congress Party has been completely isolated.

This showed that with the emergence of regional power centres, New Delhi is no longer the exclusive power centre of India.

This is in fact the phenomenon of disintegration of the existing structure of India which is claimed to be a federal union, but in essence a unitary structure.

As the process has already started rolling, the central government will have to concede more autonomy to the states.

Even some states may like to become independent while maintaining a nominal relationship with India. In their bid to grab political power, political parties in India, particularly the Congress Party, resorted to debased horse-trading involving hundreds of crores of rupees.

This political horse-trading has forfeited whatever moral authority the Central Government had in the past and now not a single party in India has the moral authority to rule India as a whole.

(to be continued) .

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