Troubled past,uncertain future

Some say that Manipur is passing through bad times. But the fact remains that for this hill state in the Northeast,uncertainty and lawlessness...

Some say that Manipur is passing through bad times. But the fact remains that for this hill state in the Northeast,uncertainty and lawlessness are two words which apply to the past,present,and probably the future too. While the indefinite hunger strike that a young woman,Irom Sharmila Chanu,began on November 4,2000 demanding repeal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act,1958,has entered its 10th year and come to be recognised as unparalleled in the history of political protests,Manipur is probably heading towards creating another record of sorts: schools and colleges,particularly in the four valley districts,have remained shut for more than four months now.

It all began with the death of a young man called Ch Sanjit,a reformed militant,in an incident on BT Road in Imphal on July 23,2009. While the police initially wanted to pass it off as another encounter death,it soon turned out to be a fake one,with a Delhi-based weekly newspaper carrying a series of photographs to drive home the point. A pregnant woman was also killed in the incident. Since then Manipur has been on the boil,with Apunba Lup,an umbrella body of 23 organisations,including three students unions,demanding among other things,the resignation of the Chief Minister and the dismissal of the state police chief.

While various other methods of protest have been carried out,three student bodies All Manipur Students Union AMSU,Manipur Students Federation MSF and Kangleipak Students Association KSA on September 9,2009 launched a class boycott programme that does not seem to see any end. While the class boycott programme initially caught the fancy of the students,things are now going beyond acceptance. With the Apunba Lup and the three student bodies refusing to give up,several attempts made by the state government have failed to yield any result.

Even as the government has held several rounds of discussions with the Apunba Lup and generally agreed to all its demands except for the removal of the Chief Minister and the Director-General of Police,there is little that it has been able to do to resume classes and save four lakh school and college students from losing an academic year. The latest attempt was made last month with the state government setting December 21 as the date for resumption of classes. But the student bodies continue to stick to their demands.

The government said no student should be promoted to the next class without conducting appropriate examination and inability to resume classes would be dealt with sternly. No action,however,has been initiated even after more than three weeks have elapsed since the expiry of the deadline.

The state government has accepted a Gauhati High Court directive to hand over investigations into the July 23 incident to the CBI. But that too has not resolved the situation. Protest rallies,demonstrations,public meetings on the demands of the Apunba Lup continue to be held in Imphal.

The standoff between the Apunba Lup and the Okram Ibobi Singh-led SPF government has somewhat receded into the background. Life seems back to normal,except for the uneasy feeling that there is something vital missing. This sense would not have been all that terrible had it not been about the future of four lakh students. Both the sides seem unconcerned about the situation, said Imphal Free Press,a leading newspaper of the state. The Opposition holds the government responsible for the impasse. The government does not take the other parties into confidence. This is the worst thing that can happen in a democracy, said Nimachan Luang,president of the Manipur Peoples Party.

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Imphal-based journalist Pradip Phanjoubam also blames the government for failing to end the impasse. In the present tussle between the government and the Apunba Lup,the government has no vision of reconciliation except to simply ignore the issue hoping it would go away on its own,even if this is at the cost of four lakh students losing a precious year, he said. He is perhaps right. It is almost impossible to get a comment from CM Ibobi Singh in this context. And the impasse continues.

400 killed in 2009

Guwahati: As many as 400 lives were lost in Manipur during last year with security forces gunning down 279 militants belonging to different underground groups. Reports quoting official statistics said that while the Army and paramilitary forces were responsible for the elimination of 100 militants during the year,the police achieved more success by killing 183 underground elements during the same period. The number of militants killed in 2007 and 2008 were 171 and 286,respectively.

The polices success was mostly due to the fact that while the Army deployment has been withdrawn from the Imphal East and Imphal West districts for several years now,incidents involving the NSCNIM have gone down in most of the hill districts since the groups ceasefire with the government in 1997.

Official reports said that while 1,368 underground cadres were arrested during the year by the police,21 people,including a minor girl and a pregnant woman,were killed in incidents of crossfire between militants and security forces. More than 40 people were killed by different insurgent groups in 2009. The anti-outsider stand of some insurgent groups left 27 non-local people dead,forcing a number of migrant labourers and daily-wagers,mostly Hindi-speaking,to flee the state.

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Underground groups continued to target security forces during the year,in the process killing 22 of them. While five Assam Rifles personnel were killed on November 23,four IRB personnel were killed on September 12. Samudra Gupta Kashyap