Manipur News

Before the onset of the monsoon, we had called the attention of the government in several editorials to potholes that had appeared on several major roads in Imphal, warning that if these were not mended in time, the monsoon waters would wash away the rather thin bitumen linings in and around these potholes, damaging the roads much more extensively. Despite these urgent appeals, the government refused to pay any heed, and now the conditions of these roads are there for everybody to see. One of the worst damaged areas is the one adjacent to the Andro Parking on the eastern side of the All India Radio, Imphal complex. There was a huge unattended pothole here for a long time and once it started raining, water accumulated in it and seeped into the earth and pebble bed the road rested on and weakened its foundation. The road has since been literally washed away leaving huge pits, and because these are now filled with rainwater, are virtually invisible, therefore extremely hazardous for motorists. Now that the thin bitumen cover has been washed away and the innards exposed for public view, even sycophants of the powers that be will think twice before defending the quality of work put into the making of these roads. Other than the Andro Parking area, the Uripok Road at the base of the B.T. Road flyover has to be seen to be believed. This relatively recently made road is now reduced to a dirt road. The RIMS Road from Nagamapal all the way to the point where it joins the Uripok Road is another stretch that would put anybody in a depression.

Much of these damages, and the consequent inconveniences and dangers thrust on thousands of ordinary commuters everyday could have been saved if the authorities paid heed to the timeless saying that a stitch in time saves nine. The cost to the state exchequer that would have been saved by such prudence is imaginable too. But then, as they say public property is nobody’s property, and those in the government who are entrusted precisely with these public properties are the ones who care the least about their charge. If this were not so, what we are now seeing in the capital Imphal would not have been possible. Furthermore, if this is what is happening in the capital, anybody can imagine what is happening in districts, the remote ones in particular. Yet, despite the obvious failure, and despite the avoidable waste of public funds, nobody will be held accountable for the mess. None of those involved in building these roads too would be fazed by the fact that the roads they built cannot stand the test of even one monsoon. Nobody takes pride in the work they do anymore, neither those actually contracted to do the job, nor those who awarded them these contracts, nor those entrusted to certify the compliance of standard of the jobs done. What everyone in the chain would have been interested in would undoubtedly be lining their pockets from the collaborative spinoffs they create from the entire process. In fact, it would not be very wrong to presume that there is a vested interest at work in building these roads not too well so that they are rebuilt practically every year so that the cycle of collaborative looting of public funds is ensured.

This is depressing. But this is also unfortunately what Manipur has become. It has lost all sense of social altruism and those leading the charge are those in power. But the call now must be not of witch hunting. It is not too late to make amends. Let a new work culture be introduced in the state. The effort has to begin with the government. It must first of all strive to introduce some structural changes apart from a stricter monitoring system of its infrastructure construction works. In this regard, it is surprising that in all of its developmental projects, including road construction, the government has not thought of factoring in the cost for maintenance. Nothing lasts forever, however well built, but the government should have known their longevity is directly proportional to the quality of their upkeep. The maintenance does not have to be always major overhauls, but mending little patches of damages so as to prevent them from setting off a progressive and ultimately total atrophy. The road stretch near the Andro Parking and the Uripok Road at the base of the BT Flyover are two loud example of this serious and indeed criminal oversight of the government. What has happened cannot be undone, but we at least hope the government would take note of the matter and do the needful so as to prevent a repeat. But then, we suppose this appeal would probably be as ridiculous as asking compulsive kleptomaniacs not to steal.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/no-stitches-in-time/

The trial of the arrested United National Liberation Front, UNLF, chairman, R.K. Sanayaima, would begin sooner than later. The case is important for more reason than the obvious of the accused having transgressed the law. It will demonstrate among others the status government of India holds the various nationalistic uprisings (or insurgencies) in the Northeast to be. That is to say, this case will demonstrate whether the Indian state sees these shows of dissents as merely problems of law and order breaches or else radical political dissents arising out of historical and structural inconsistencies between the idea of the India and those who see themselves at its margin or else outside its fold. A lot of future resolutions the problem of insurgency in the Northeast as elsewhere in other parts of the country may indeed come to pivot around this case. Here is a case of an insurgent leader arrested in Bangladesh though officially unacknowledged, and two months after his arrest and illegal detention, surfaced allegedly in Bihar, and according to the official version, arrested while he was trying to cross into Indian territory from Nepal. There was a genuine worry at the time the arrested UNLF leader remained missing that he would be made to disappear without a trace, but this did not happen, indicating already the intent of his captors that he is better alive than dead. If it was otherwise, there ordinarily would have been no way to prove he had been arrested, much less executed. Quite obviously his captors knew this more than anybody else, but they did not do what had become a popular feared.

The arrested insurgent leader is now being charge sheeted. The charges against him can also be guessed. At its most grand, it would be waging war against the nation. The penalty for this, if proven, would be understandably tough. From all indications the arrested leader is also not shirking away from his role in the ideology he has been pursuing, or the fact that he had been the leader of an organisation outlawed under Indian law, his only caveat being that he was not waging war against India but defending an erstwhile sovereign kingdom’s right to self determination. In past cases of such arrests, the modus operandi had been far too often of the arrested leaders claiming, obviously on the advice of their lawyers, that they had nothing to do with the organisation they were accused of heading or had no knowledge of the offences against the law slapped against them, and in the absence of conclusive proof or witness evidences, eventually getting bail, which they then jumped. They get to be free again and continue their fight, but such moves morally demeaned the struggle they headed. In the present case, the table is being turned. With the same conviction that he fought his war, the UNLF leader is now defending the reason why he fought the war.

What the legal response would be is predictable and understandable. It can only go by the statute book. But what is to be watched here is the political response, or the statesmanship with which the Indian state would handle the situation. Would it too simply go by the statute book or look beyond and discover the larger picture. On the larger canvas of peace building and resolution to the various insurgencies in the Northeast, the Indian state’s attitude and decision on the UNLF leader case would have a profound bearing. It would also answer the million rupees question of whether resolving insurgency in the Northeast is a military responsibility or a political and statesmanship enterprise. In this way, we see the unfolding case to be an important litmus test. It will also determine whether the establishment is looking for a victory in a battle or thinking of winning the war. We do hope it is the latter. We do hope the arrested UNLF leader, for the very reason that has chosen to stand by his conviction, is not treated as a common law offender but a political prisoner with all entitled dignity accorded to him, even if he is ultimately rewarded the severest penalty for waging war against the nation. This is important, for it is now more than clear that the familiar tactics of delegitimizing insurgency by labelling it as criminal has not brought the intended result in all these decades. It only embittered the constituencies that threw up these defiant challenges to the establishment. It is now time to give these phenomena the legitimacy they always deserved, and then tackle it from this vantage. The trial of the UNLF leader R.K. Sanayaima in this regard can be the benchmark of a new and enlightened approach to resolving the question of insurgency not just in Manipur, but the entire Northeast and even beyond.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/crucial-case/

The Sadar Hills District Demand Committee, SHDDC’s agitation for the creation of new district Sadar Hills, remains unrelenting and the blockade imposed by it is beginning to have a serious impact on life in the state. Essential commodities and other consumables imported from other parts of India are beginning to become scarce in the markets in Imphal, and consequently in the other towns and villages of the state as well. Very soon, if the inflow of petrol remains disrupted, the familiar and depressing sight of long queues outside petrol pumps would reappear. Public transport fares would soon begin climbing steeply and likewise cooking gas prices too would head for the ceiling. The question is, why has this become Manipur’s reality? How have many issues in the state become intractable and close ended, showing no promise for an amicable end?

The Sadar Hills issue is now more than 20 years old. Yet there is no indication that it will be resolved immediately. The inability of the government, not just the present one, but each one in power during the last two decades and more, to put the problem to rest is, to be fair, not solely the government’s alone. It is on the other hand a characteristic of most issues related to ethnic identity. Although there are not many acknowledging it, and instead plenty insisting on calling it essentially an issue of administrative lethargy, the fact is, the biggest stumbling block before the issue has been one posed by ethnic contestations over territory informed by archaic notions of ethnic homelands. The problem with these homelands is there are too many different notions of it depending on the vantage of different ethnic groups. The territories thought to be part of these homelands also invariably overlap. This precisely is the problem preventing any easy resolution to the Sadar Hills district issue. The proposed new district is to be created by severing this sub-division of the Senapati district from the Senapati district. Doing this is not an easy proposition for the area under the Sadar Hills, and largely Kuki dominated, is seen by the Nagas as part of their traditional homeland. Kukis and other communities in the area who are in physical occupation of it interpret this differently. As of now the SHDDC has taken the extreme step of blockading the National Highway-39, to press for their demands, but should their demands be granted, it can be certain the Nagas would resort to similar coercive measures on the stretch of the same highway they are in physical majority. Indications of intents of such recourses have already come from civil organisations amongst the Nagas in messages published in the local media.

So where do the state go from here? It is difficult to imagine this is a state which cannot even redraw its district boundaries without causing social unrests. This would have had some logic if the state’s two regions, the reserved hills and the non-reserved valley were to overlap after such demarcations. For in such circumstances, the new administration structure rather than becoming easier would become even more complicated. However, if the divisions were to be strictly within each of the two separate regions, there ought not to have been any problem. The valley was once upon a time just one district. It is now four. The hills could also have been similarly divided for administrative convenience, but homeland politics has other visions and insecurities, therefore nobody is willing to listen to this argument. Perhaps the government should factor these insecurities in its strategies and approach the problem from this standpoint. As for instance, it could experiment with things like naming the proposed Sadar Hills district as Senapati (South) and the old Senapati as Senapati (North). The point is to send out the message to those demanding as well as opposing the formation of this new district that the new district has no other intent than administrative convenience. This would be in the manner Imphal district was divided into Imphal East and West. Then there is the question of Jiribam. This small patch of plains inhabited predominantly by non Schedule Tribe population could have been merged with adjacent Tamenglong, but this, as pointed out earlier in this editorial, would create obvious problems as there would have to be substantial reworking of the administration mechanism in the district so as to accommodate general category population in a district reserved for schedule tribes. Not to be forgotten are the echoes of similar demands for new district status at Phungyar in Ukhrul district and Tengnoupal in Chandel district. While the voices of the latter two are still faint, as to whether they become threatening will depend on how the government handles the Sadar Hills district issue.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2011/08/senapati-south/