‘Three words’ which was signed between the NSCN-IM and the then interlocutor of the Government of India Mr. Padmabhaiya killed 21 people and burnt almost all offices of political parties in the state of Manipur. It was June 14, 2001, a day after the then Defence Minister George Fernandes of Samata Party, which was an alliance of the then NDA government headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpay, declared in a public meeting at GM hall here in Imphal that no such thing like extension of cease fire between the government of India and the NSCN-IM would extend to the state of Manipur.
The signing of the agreement of extending cease fire agreement ‘without territorial limit’ at Bangkok on June 14, 2001 showed that the then Interlocutor Padmabhaiya either have no respect for the Defence Minister of the Country or the defence Minister simply tried to fool the people of the state as the signing was done a day after he left Imphal.
If one recalled, the mass uprising following the signing of the agreement – for the first time in the history of Manipur the temple of democracy was burnt. The then speaker was humiliated by the angry mob and one MLA was half burnt as no one noticed him hiding at a corner of the Manipur Legislative Assembly office building when people burnt it.
This write up is a reminder of how sensitive is the issue which concerns the integrity of the state.
The signing of the Frame Work Agreement and the recent submission of report to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha by the Parliamentary committee which signals partition of the state on administrative line of a specific ethnic community once more gear up the anger of the people as it was an issue which took 21 lives and burnt almost all political parties offices of the state.
Mass uprising of June 18 was when the NDA government led by the BJP was at the center. And simmering tension which provoked the major civil society organizations of the state today is also at a time when the BJP led NDA is in power at the center.
Life in Imphal and other other major district have been completely put to a grinding halt. Government offices and other establishment including banking have been paralyzed. Tomorrow will make no difference as another group called bandh in the same issue. That means two working days will put life in Imphal a dead state. It is only the police department which is busy during the bandh and all development works of the government and the private entrepreneurs as well as school children will be two days back comparing to other states across the country. The haunt of July – August has once more arrived.
Promises to make the state a bandh free by the present N. Biren Singh led government turns as a joke.
When I recalled, it was the mass uprising of June month against the extension of the cease fire to the state of Manipur that the Chief Minister of Manipur began his political career. His stand for safeguarding the state of Manipur made him peoples’ choice and finally made a roadway to politics. It was again the Congress regime inability to handle the multiple issues of the state including the prolonged Economic blockade called by a frontal body of NSCN-IM that he left the congress party and joined the BJP and it was his fate that he became the Chief Minister of Manipur. It was not the choice of the BJP but rather his fates that make him hold the most top position of the state.
Well, the once upon a time lion (Meitei Nongsha) of the soil now is more like a lion of the circus which a master keeps controlling to perform as desire by the master.
Knowing that it is wrong to keep Prof. A P Pandey here in Manipur University he did not have the guts to urge the central leadership which is in the same political party in a courageous manner. He cannot argued the implication of Article 371(A) to all the Naga Inhabited region of NE states of Manipur. He can’t present a bold statement on why the 6th Scheduled of the Indian constitution is not applicable to the state of Manipur even as the similar kind is being incorporated with the article 371(C) of the Indian constitution.
BJP’s leaders always said that it is the country first, then come the Party. Our Chief Minister N. Biren Singh who is also a BJP member should follow the tradition of the BJP and even ready to sacrifice his position if Manipur is at the verge of distinction.
