pradip phanjoubam
MANIPUR today is in an unenviable situation. Multiple insurrections and accompanying demands for unique identities and homelands have literally paralysed every vital activity in civil and government spheres. There is an added dimension to the problem. This is most acutely felt after the Centre actively pushed its policy of suspending operations against militant groups that accepted its offer for peace negotiations.
This is understandable, and any government anywhere in the world would happily have done what New Delhi has done — that is, to agree to a cessation of hostility with any militant organisation that wishes to settle its problems peacefully across the table with the government. However, in a multi-ethnic situation, where there are many ethnic insurgencies whose interests and demands overlap considerably, this strategy has given rise to previously unseen and grave consequences.
One of these is that hostility may have ceased between the government and any particular insurgent group willing to talk, but this does not in any way spell an end of hostility between particular militant groups and their rivals. This problem, as is being rudely discovered in Manipur, is nothing to trifle with.
The other more serious consequence involves not just a technical matter to be sorted out but also interrogates the moral responsibility of the government which has roped in insurgent groups to agree to come to the negotiating table. The natural question that follows is, are militant groups that have agreed to observe a ceasefire with the government to be allowed to continue with whatever they were doing before the ceasefire, so long as they do not fight security forces? In particular, are they to be allowed to indulge in intimidation and extortion (or tax collection as the militants themselves would call this activity)? While outlawed organisations indulging in extortion definitely amounts to a law and order question to be tackled by the law, how exactly would militant organisations that are no longer “illegal” in the eyes of the government and collect these “illegal taxes” be dealt with by the law?
Not only is this a matter of legal dilemma, but the social consequences can be grave. Manipur probably knows this better than any other state. The immediate example of truckers refusing to use National Highway No 39 in protest against the extortion by organisations that have ceased to be outlaws is just a very relevant case in point.
Thirteen years ago, it was the NSCN(IM) that decided to observe a ceasefire and begin peace talks with the Centre. Today, a dozen or so Kuki militant groups under two umbrella organisations are in a Suspension of Operations agreement with the Centre as well as the state government. All of them, however, have still not ceased extortion activities, even if under the guise of “taxes”.
Should the Centre not be held responsible for this? It is simply passing on the most tangible burden of these peace initiatives to ordinary people. It is true that these insurgent organisations, although they are observing a ceasefire with the government, need money to ensure their organisational integrity while the peace talks are being held, but who exactly must pay the price is the moot question.
To indulge in a little exercise in logic, citizens pay the government taxes in the belief that the government will look after their security in every respect. Can the government abdicate this responsibility however much it touts the peace initiative with militants? Under the circumstance, shouldn’t the Centre think of estimating the budgets of each of the militant groups in ceasefire mode and, until a peace settlement is reached, pay the amount on the condition that none of them will collect their own “taxes” from the public?
The Centre can easily afford this extra expense in “buying” peace. After all, the Indian economy has entered the exclusive elite club of a trillion-dollar GDP and is still growing phenomenally. It is currently the 11th largest economy of the world. Surely footing an annual bill of a few hundred crore rupees in the pursuit of peace will not be asking too much. In any case, it would be spending as much in fighting the law and order situation created by its refusal to do so. The Manipur situation should be a reminder for its North-east policy mandarins.
The writer is editor, Imphal Free Press