No Cause for Cheer

Nagaland-based Naga Students’ Federation’s temporary withdrawal of the over two-month blockade of Manipur’s lifeline, NH39, on the Nagaland stretch, is of little relief.

Manipur’s miseries continue. And there’s little to cheer for the state’s 3 million people. For, even if all Naga organisations loosen their stranglehold on the state’s vital lifeline—National Highway 39—for the time being, transporters will not ply their vehicles on this highway that passes through Nagaland and then Naga-inhabited areas in the hills of Manipur before entering the Imphal Valley. Not till Naga bodies in Nagaland and Manipur, who’re suspected of having links with the rebel National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) faction headed by Thuingaleng Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu, stop extorting huge amounts from transporters. And since these groups, for which extortion (estimated at Rs 4 crore a month) is a major source of sustenance, won’t stop their grossly illegal activities, there’s no chance of supplies resuming to the starved Imphal Valley through this highway. At least not till security forces, as promised by Union Home Secretary GK Pillai, escort convoys of trucks and passenger vehicles through the treacherous stretches in Nagaland and Manipur. But given New Delhi’s propensity to mollycoddle the Naga groups, chances of Central security forces lifting the blockade by force are slim.

The blockade on NH 39 was “temporarily suspended” earlier this week by the powerful Nagaland-based Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) after a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But while the NSF said it would allow vehicles on their way to Manipur to pass through Nagaland, their sister body—the All Naga Students’ Association of Manipur (Ansam)—which had called for a blockade on the Manipur stretch of NH 39 on 11 April, said it would continue with the disruption.

News of the NSF’s temporary and provisional withdrawal met with contempt in Manipur. Quite understandably so, since the NSF set some impossible terms for a permanent withdrawal of the blockade. “We want the Manipur government to withdraw state forces (Manipur police and its commandos) from the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur, and scrapping of the (recently-held) Autonomous District Council elections (in the hill areas of Manipur),” NSF president M Yhobu told the media after meeting the PM in New Delhi. The NSF knows that these demands cannot be met, and thus it would be free to re-impose the blockade after a few weeks citing inaction on the part of the Manipur government.

“There is no way these two demands can be met. Which state will bow to the dictates of a group from another state and virtually abdicate its authority over any part of the state? The hill districts of Manipur are an integral part of our state, and Manipur forces cannot be withdrawn from there,” says Manipur Cabinet spokesperson N Biren Singh. The minister, elaborating on the sensitive nature of the issue, adds: “The rest of the country needs to know that the hill districts of Manipur are not inhabited by only the tribes who’ve given themselves the ‘Naga’ tag, but also many other tribes who have often been targeted by Nagas.” The Naga groups’ demand for withdrawal of Manipur state forces from the hill districts is opposed by non-Naga tribes such as Kukis who fear a repeat of the ethnic cleansing of Kukis by Nagas in 1993-94 that led to the deaths of hundreds of their tribesfolk and displacement of thousands from the hills.

It is with the holding of the elections to the Autonomous District Council (ADC) in the hills in early April that the vicious blockade on Manipur started. Naga groups started opposing the elections, held after a gap of 20 years, to the ADC that gives considerable self-rule to the tribals in the state’s hill districts. A section of Nagas, suspected to be acting at the behest of the NSCN (I-M), opposed some amendments in the ADC Act that take away overarching powers that were vested with the traditional and nominated tribal chieftains, and vest them with the democratically elected representatives in the ADC and village councils.

“The amendment should have been welcomed, as other tribes like Kukis, Hmars, Kabuis and many others even among the tribes that call themselves Nagas nowadays had done, because it took away powers, especially financial powers, that the chieftains used to exercise arbitrarily,” says a spokesperson of the Manipur government. That tribals in the hills in general were not opposed to the amendments and the holding of the elections was evident from the nearly 53 per cent turnout in the two-phase polls conducted during a bandh called by some Naga groups.

“A section of Nagas opposed the polls for a very sinister reason. Huge funds go to the ADC and the village councils. With the chieftains controlling a large share of the funds, some Naga groups aligned with the NSCN (I-M) used to extort a huge slice of these funds from the chieftains. But with the amendments, which also usher in a fair amount of transparency and strict monitoring of funds, such extortion would be difficult. Hence the opposition,” says a senior bureaucrat in Imphal. Thus, it all boils down to money to be made from extortion.

Significantly, a large section within the tribes that are bracketed under the artificial construct of a greater ‘Naga’ identity don’t support the blockade or the machinations of the Naga groups. But as also in Nagaland, where many tribes are opposed to the NSCN (I-M), they remain silent and cowed down by the fear of the gun that the NSCN(I-M) and its allies so often train on their opponents.

The greater game behind the blockade and other agitations by the Naga groups linked to the NSCN (I-M) is that they need to disrupt life in Manipur frequently in order to boost their demand for ‘Greater Nagaland’. The NSCN (I-M)’s cherished goal is the integration of all Naga-inhabited areas in Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh into a ‘Greater Nagaland’ or ‘Nagalim’ state. And Thuingaleng Muivah, who belongs to the Tangkhul tribe that inhabits Ukhrul district of Manipur, has to deliver the promised goal if he has to stay relevant in Naga politics.

“Muivah, a Tangkhul, will not be acceptable as a leader within the present boundaries of Nagaland to the other Naga tribes. He’ll never be able to win an election in present-day Nagaland. So he has to bring in at least Ukhrul into Nagaland to become a democratically elected leader of Nagas once negotiations with New Delhi end and elections are held to facilitate the rebels getting a legitimate hold on power in Nagaland. But to demand the integration of only Ukhrul would make Muivah appear self-serving. Hence, the demand for all Naga-inhabited areas in the three states and even Myanmar,” explains a Gauhati University academic who has written extensively on this issue.

Incidentally, numerous insurgent groups in the Valley, which were on the run and had lost sympathy of the masses, are using the present hardship of Manipuris to whip up support. A fresh chapter in Manipur’s insurgency seems to be unfolding, thanks to the deplorable inaction of New Delhi in delivering justice to Manipur.

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