Opinion In Parliament, Manipur is let down again
The hastry ratification of President's rule is telling
May 3 would be three years since the ethnic violence broke out. (PTI) 
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In the early hours of Thursday, just before calling it a day, Lok Sabha discussed the imposition of President’s Rule in Manipur. It took less than an hour to ratify the government’s decision. Throughout the Budget session, the state received scant attention. To those who have observed the government’s neglect of the state in the past two years, the short shrift to Manipur in Parliament wasn’t surprising. In the second week of March, a spirited outburst by Outer Manipur MP, Alfred Arthur Kanngam, had drawn attention to the state’s budget, which had made no attempts to bridge the imbalance between the Imphal Valley and the hills — a major reason for the ethnic strife.
By all accounts, scarcely any government relief is going to the Kuki-inhabited areas of Kangpokpi and Churachandpur. May 3 would be three years since the ethnic violence broke out. People have not just lost their homes but their careers and education have been disrupted. The Centre has made very little attempt to apply any healing touch. It hasn’t tried to address the mental trauma of the people forced to live in relief camps.
After belatedly imposing President’s Rule in Manipur on February 16, the Centre now wants to restore places of worship in the state. But what about restoring the hundreds of homes of the Kuki-Zo people in the Imphal valley? And what about the homes of Meiteis in Churachandpur and Moreh that were razed after May 3, 2023? When an area is roiled by ethnic strife, there are victims and perpetrators on both sides of the divide. What about recovering the arms that were looted by militant outfits in the Imphal Valley and hills? Of late, there has been some progress on this front. But a large cache continues to be in the possession of insurgents.
In the past few weeks, the government has often said that the situation is returning to “normal”. But a lot needs to be done. Homes will need to be rebuilt. The Kuki-Zos who fled the Imphal Valley left behind important documents such as academic certificates and voter identity cards. They will need these documents to resume their lives. Most importantly, their confidence in the state’s ability to protect them will need to be restored. It is the same with the Meiteis who had to flee from the hills. The Kuki-Zo people seem to have no faith in Manipur Police — a majority of police personnel are Meitei. At the same time, the Assam Rifles is seen as partisan to the tribal communities. It’s clear that the government will need to bridge the trust deficit. Many people, including children, who have witnessed the gruesome violence are mentally scarred. Has the government thought of reaching out to such people? The psychological impact will last longer if we pretend that we have solutions to the crisis from far off. Governor Ajay Bhalla will be keenly watched in how he handles these challenges.
Wounds have festered in the state for far too long. The Meiteis, who constitute about 43 per cent of Manipur’s population, live in only one-tenth of the state’s area. At the same time, land is a precious resource for the hill communities. The Meiteis cannot buy land in the hills while Kukis and Nagas can do so in the Valley. This state of affairs is a carryover from colonial times. But the failure to resolve the problem in a manner acceptable to all speaks of the short shrift given to the Northeast after Independence.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often spoken of the Northeast as the Ashtalakshmi — the eight forms of Goddess Lakshmi. Yet, it’s a mystery why he has chosen to stay away from Manipur in the past two years. In fact, he visited neighbouring Assam as late as February 24. Why does PM Modi need the Opposition’s criticism to spur him to speak on a vital part of the Ashtalakshmi?
The coinage, Ashtalakshmi, was part of the Act East Policy — an initiative which the people of the North East thought was going to open up economic opportunities for them. But, over time, it appears that the strategic concern — stopping China from monopolising the Indo-Pacific route — seems to have overtaken the economic imperative.
India’s Northeast is encircled by countries in turmoil — Myanmar to the east and Bangladesh to the south. The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway envisaged by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government is virtually forgotten today. This 1,360 km highway connecting Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand was intended to improve trade relations with Southeast Asia. The Kaladan multi-modal transit point linking Mizoram to Kolkata and then to Sittwe in the Rakhine State of Myanmar, too, hasn’t been completed. Internal connectivity within the Northeast has improved to an extent. Even then, at times, travelling from one state to another takes much longer than flying to other parts of the country.
And yet, another Parliament session has gone by without a meaningful discussion on the difficulties of the region’s people.
The writer is editor, Shillong Times
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