The spark that lit the powder keg

Imphal has been curfew-bound for a week now... The people of Manipur are angry with the Centre and have lost faith in their politicians. Barun Das Guptaon the fallout of the territorial extension of the ceasefire with Naga militants.

PEOPLE'S ANGER at the extension of the ceasefire with the NSCN(I- M) to all Naga-dominated areas in the Northeast erupted in Imphal last Monday on a scale that was unprecedented even for a State like Manipur that has seen insurgency-related violence for decades.

Thousands of angry people burnt down the Assembly building, the Speaker's bungalow, the Chief Minister's secretariat and offices of the Congress(I), the MSCP, and the MPP. They were about to torch the Chief Minister's official residence when the security forces opened fire. Thirteen persons including five teenagers were killed. Among the dead was Yumnam Rishikanta, 32-year-old former president of the All-Manipur Students' Union (AMSU).

The State administration, now directly under the Centre, seemed to have been quite unprepared although the signs of what was building up were very clear. On June 14, the ceasefire was extended by another year from August 1, 2001, and to Naga- inhabited areas outside Nagaland, that is, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

The very next day, June 15, 83 voluntary organisations of Manipur gave a call for a 66-hour general strike beginning midnight. This was followed by the AMSU and three other bodies calling a 24-hour general strike beginning midnight of June 17.

The Manipur Students' Federation (MSF) asked all NDA partners including the BJP, the Samata Party and the MSCP, to ``give an unqualified assurance'' that they would get the ceasefire extension agreement revoked by June 30. Or else, these parties ``will be extinguished from the soil of Manipur''. Later, the MLAs were asked to resign. Most of them went into hiding.

While the strike paralysed the State, hundreds of effigies of the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, the NSCN(I-M) leader, Mr. Thuingelang Muivah, and the Centre's interlocutor, Mr. K. Padmanabhaiah, were burnt all over the State.

In Imphal, angry mobs burnt piles of tyres and wood in the middle of the major roads, spread shards of glass and oil to prevent the movement of vehicles and pedestrians. The rampage began around 11 a.m. on Monday and continued for two hours till 1 p.m. Senior police officials were busy in a meeting. The CRPF did not have orders to open fire. Molotov cocktails were thrown on the CRPF men. Attempts were even made to snatch their weapons. But the CRPF waited; it had no orders to act. The State police were plainly unable to cope with the situation.

It was around 1 p.m. when the Chief Minister's residence was about to be torched that the orders came. Immediately, firing started and the crowd fled, leaving the dead and the injured behind. Since then, Imphal has remained curfew-bound, with two hours of relaxation in the morning. Stocks of essentials have been depleted and prices have soared. The price of potatoes has jumped from Rs. 8 to Rs. 15 a kg, onions from Rs. 9 to Rs. 15, and tomatoes from Rs. 5 to Rs. 40.

Manipuris have a deep-rooted fear that in any political settlement with the NSCN, they will have to cede territory to a ``Greater Nagaland'', now called ``Greater Nagalim''. (There are four Naga-inhabited districts in Manipur: Ukhrul, Chandel, Tamenglong and Senapati.).

Four years ago, when a section of the media reported that the Centre might agree to cede certain areas of Manipur as part of a settlement with the NSCN, a protest rally was organised by the All Manipur United Clubs' Organisation (AMUCO) at the Polo Ground in Imphal on August 4, 1997. The rally, attended by half a million people, was the biggest Manipur has witnessed.

It demanded a ``categorical assurance'' from the Centre that Manipur's territorial integrity would not be compromised as a result of a settlement with the NSCN(I-M). That rally seems to have been forgotten by the Centre; Mr. Advani's recent assurance on Manipur's territorial integrity has failed to allay the fears.

Mr. Muivah's statement that the NSCN was not interested in ``other people's territory'' but wanted only the lands inhabited by the Nagas to be integrated into one State, and that there was no question of a ``smaller or greater'' Nagaland, has only confirmed the Manipuris' fears.

Significantly, the Congress(I) Chief Minister of Nagaland, Mr. S. C. Jamir, has also said that he stands by the resolutions passed three times by the Nagaland Assembly for the integration of Naga- dominated areas into one administrative unit, provided, he added, the Nagas of those areas were willing.

The people of Manipur, it appears, have no faith in their politicians. They distrust them. The current movement against the ceasefire extension is being spearheaded by non-political organisations such as AMUCO, AMSU, AMKIL, NIPCO, IPSA and UPF. They are asking the MLAs to resign.

Thirty-six MLAs from the BJP, the Samata Party, the Congress(I), the MPP and two factions of the MSCP met at the Circuit House in Imphal on Thursday and ``decided to resign'' only if the Centre did not agree to change the decision on territorial extension of the ceasefire.

The next day, most leaders left for New Delhi to attend the meeting convened by Mr. Advani on Saturday to discuss the Manipur situation. Mr. O. Joy Singh, MPP president, said they would ``convey the sentiments and message of the people'' to the Centre and ask it to review the ceasefire decision.

Should the Centre fail to honour these sentiments, he feared, the ``worst possible situation'' would arise and it would be solely responsible. In such a situation, he said, all MLAs might resign. No wonder, an Army officer said: ``There is two thousand per cent possibility of another flare up''.

Even a senior BJP leader like Mr. Bhuban Singh, MLA, a retired colonel, says bluntly: ``We cannot trust the Union Government, which failed us repeatedly. Why was there an `undeclared ceasefire' between the Army (III Corps) and the NSCN in the hill districts of Manipur? We do not trust words and promises but only actions.''

Mr. Singh, whose name is being mentioned as a possible ``compromise Chief Minister'' when the Assembly is revived and a new Government installed, puts forward some suggestions for ``whoever becomes the Chief Minister'' to follow:

``Instead of sending all-party delegations to New Delhi, the Prime Minister or the Union Home Minister must come to Imphal for talks; no officials from Delhi should be welcomed, if they come they can stay in hotels or go by taxis, not Government cars; and the next Chief Minister must not allow setting up of `designated camps' of the NSCN in Manipur.''

Mr. Advani's statement that the question of Naga ceasefire extension was discussed at a Chief Ministers' conference and that those from the northeastern States had consented to it, has already been contradicted by Mr. Tarun Gogoi and Mr. Mukut Mithi, Chief Ministers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Even the Chief Secretary of Manipur, now under Central rule, has denied that he agreed to the decision.

These repudiations have certainly not enhanced Mr. Advani's credibility or standing.The talks with the NSCN leaders, Mr. Isak Chisi Swu and Mr. Muivah, have all along been kept under wraps. Above all, the Centre has not explained why, having insisted all along that the ceasefire will not be extended beyond Nagaland, it suddenly reversed that decision. Without this explanation, assurances by Mr. Vajpayee or Mr. Advani that settlement of the Nagas' problem will not be at the cost of other States' territory would fail to reassure the people.

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