By- Mr. Paojakhup Guite@Saihenjang
The second dispensation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Manipur is moving into a novel politics of its own making. A supposedly new genre of politics has come out of the closet, with a conspicuous open-secret target. The state Chief Minister’s pet project or drive of ‘War on Drugs’ is tacitly exclusively aimed at the allegedly illegal poppy cultivation. In the initial stage, the drive was like the proverbial ‘better late than never’ approach, that is, to nip the herb in the bud only.
The Flower That Itches Sight
The poppy blooms and flowers, but not attracts tourists nor deserves a festival of itself like Shirui Lily does. In the ‘better late than never approach’, the CM relied on nipping the poppy plant in the bud. To wait for the bud is, but to give the practice of deforestation a chance to occur. This was a blunder he had committed. Realising this mistake, he made another ambitious attempt to rectify it. The WoDs 2.0 is rather aimed at nipping in the root, giving no chance for the bud to shoot out of the soil. This means no chance for forest clearing (jhuming/deforestation) and no cultivation of that particular herb. This will save the roots of so many other tress and the whole vegetation as a forest.
In the garb of environmental protection, the government has escalated the CM’s pet project into a flagship programme of the government altogether. The government has hastily issued order after order for the eviction exercise on the alleged land encroachers across mountains or hill ranges of the state. The infamous ‘Reserved Forest’ and ‘Protected Forest’ policies of the forest and revenue departments of the government have surfaced to the disillusionment of tribals dwelling therein. The irate indigenous forest dwelling tribal communities are suspicious of the intent of WoDs on one hand and, of dispossessing their lands on the other hand. Thankfully, reluctantly or willingly the poppy cultivating tribal communities taking note of this putative political manoeuvre of the state government, have taken a pledge to quit at all the allegedly illegal poppy cultivation, ostensibly in the hope of saving their land ownership.
Participatory Rural Appraisal
Consequent upon the hill tribes realising their mistake and taking a steely resolve to quitting the allegedly illegal plantation, the same has to be reciprocated by the government in the mistake it had committed regarding the forest matters. The government had not consulted neither the forest dwellers nor the central government. Forest subject is in the Concurrent List as per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.
However, the government has still time to continue with its forest protection policy with a proviso of participations from the affected tribals. The stakeholder tribals have to be taken on board while formulating a policy that affects their lives and,this inability to participate in the decision making is called Voice Poverty, a term coined by Jo Tacchi (a development researcher in Loughborough University, London). I have cited and discussed about this concept in my last article published by the daily on 13th/14thMay, 2022 on the topic “The Semiotic Interpretations of Traffic Policing”.
Not only is the lack of consultation to the Centre, but worse is a total absence of participation from the people on the ground. Not only is the lack of concern for the 7th Schedule, but also of a procedural lapse, i.e., not following what is envisaged in the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. However, government should not lose faith in gaining the confidence of grassroots level stakeholders. This ground level consultation is called Participatory Rural Appraisal. PRA is a very democratic step of development initiatives. Thus, the government still stands a chance to get its policy implemented efficiently and effectively with a democratic participation from the rural people. In short, PRA involves 4 stages: conceptual stage, monitoring phase, implementation stage and evaluation stage. In each stage, the stakeholder tribals have to be taken into considerations.
The Question of Adulterated H2O
The trending narrative of mountain economy has both denotation and connotation of poppy and forest policy measures, unlike the dominant paradigm of mountain tourism- as a tourist hotspot or hill station. Miffed at the selective target nature of the most touted WoDs, the poppy cultivators have raised a comparative question and suspicion over the drive vis-à-vis other related intoxicants.
The liquor distilleries at Sekmai and Andro are cynosures of all doubts. The question is why is liquor not included under the ambit of WoDs. Is it because liquor is manufactured not in the mountain ranges that, it is excluded from the list of drugs or narcotics?
We do not need statistics to believe the harmful effects of liquor. Alcoholism inflicts much more harms in life- family and society. We might have personally witnessed a number of alcohol induced broken families. We might have heard story of marriages being not on tract or last long. There are umpteen couples who have even taken an extreme step of divorce. Alcohol related mortality has been witnessed on a daily basis. In contrast, hardly would anyone see a case of someone dying of poppy consumption. Rather, the herbal plant has many medicinal values.
The government cannot justify its move of not including liquor under the ambit of WoDs on mere ground of legalisation. Liquor is gradually killing human race.
Until and unless liquor is included in the WoDs, the purpose of the drive will defeat by itself. Controversy will keep lingering on among communities on the question of the policy intent.
Humanity over Legality
What is the rationale behind inclusion and exclusion policy of WoDs. It is of everyone’s belief that poppy cultivation is being curbed on the ground of humanity.
Liquor is as much detrimental to humanity as poppy is. Then, why is poppy included, while liquor not?
Legality of alcohol won’t do us any good any way. It is a gross violation of equal treatment and protection of law under Article 14 of the Constitution of the country.
Manipur should take or borrow a template of liquor ban of Bihar. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar took a bold step of liquor ban in 2016 by declaring Bihar a dry state under The Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016. Even with the stringent law on curbing alcohol consumption, the Act was not successful to an optimum level. In contrast; free production, distribution and consumption have legal protection in Manipur. For the sake of humanity, equal treatment has to be given to poppy and alcohol, both need to be fought simultaneously so that the menace of drugs in society will be eradicated, if not eliminated. Moreover, Rule of Law takes its precedence in democratic countries like ours. Otherwise, inclusion and exclusion bias of WoDs will eventually meet its Waterloo!
As the state is reeling under the raging fire of communal tensions basically spurred by initiatives like WoDs, Forest policies, the government has to tread the path of consultation and equality. If WoDs is implemented in letter and spirit with community supports, then only will harmony and prosperity prevail in the state. The state government will keep its momentum in doing away with all anti-social or humanity elements like poppy, alcohol and other intoxicants. Elimination of all these harmful elements will restore the Jewelin us as a Manipuri.
(The author is currently pursuing an MA in Media Studies at the Central University of Hyderabad, Telangana. Views expressed are personal. The writer can be reached at [email protected]/6009962948)
