The ongoing agitation by Village Defense Force (VDF) in the state of Manipur is a serious issue. Their demand for hike in honorarium may be somewhat justified but the other demand including setting up of a separate battalion for the VDF as well as treating them in par with the trained state police force is somewhat unacceptable, and government need to ponder upon it before taking up any measures to find a solution. This is brought to the notice because the number of VDF at present had cross over ten thousands. Besides being large in number these people can be utilised in any form by those in power especially by those who are in power like the Police officers, Ministers and MLAs.
We have seen the VDF personnel ensuing themselves in violent agitation like vandalising of vehicles, shutting of markets and other business establishment while protesting for their demands. These groups of people don’t seem to bother about the law of the land and that is perhaps the reason for choosing the law court while trying to get what they wanted.
If the situation worsens and if these people continue their stirs, there is no guarantee that they choose some other path which may be hard for the government to tackle with.
It may be recalled that VDF came into existence to counter the hostile activities of terrorists during the late 2000s. Peoples’ anger to the terrorists’ activities and the security forces’ inability to safeguard the live and properties of the common man had compelled to make a choice of demanding weapons beyond the legal validity. With the kind of pressure for all quarters of the people as well as the inability to tackle such a situation, the VDF came into being in the form of Special Police Officers (SPOs) on May 23, 2008 amidst much criticism and protest from people who sawed the catastrophe of such a measures. It was at a time when the Jammu and Kashmir government terminated a similar programme due to various problems.
In the way, it is seen VDF now no longer is a discipline force at which the authority can keep in full controlled. When these people who should be under the control of the state police went out of hand, there is no guarantee about the safety of the common man when they go hostile.
The problem of the VDF is indeed a serious one. If anything goes wrong to tackle the ongoing protest of the VDF, the government might face another serious problem.
