The drafting committee co-opted from different political parties of Manipur, headed by MLA RK Anand, to draft an official memorandum to the Prime Minister of India on the border fencing dispute with Myanmar will reach the areas of contention in and around Moreh on Tuesday to collect materials for the letter.
Presumably during the joint political party meeting where the committee was conceived, the Chief Minister O Ibobi gave a comprehensive picture of the genesis of the complaints lodged by the affected villagers and the standpoints of the CSOs and definitely went on to enlighten the participants about the updated reports without missing any significant point that happened in between. To rewind the events some time backwards, Ibobi had dismissed the reports of border encroachment by the Myanmarese as malicious when it first started doing round. Even when he flew to Delhi for consultations with Central leaders, under pressure from the impending backlash back home, Union Home Minister SK Shinde had reportedly cautioned him about the undesirable consequences of antagonizing the Myanmarese government and spoiling the newly mended bilateral relationship. At least the Central leaders have shown signs that the issue seemed to them as a straightforward case encountered on a normal basis along the country’s long boundary.
On the other hand, several civil society organizations and village leaders are still wrapped in the unshakeable fear that the border fencing will eventually culminate in the state losing vast expanse of land yet again. For example, the Committee on Protection of Land in Border Fencing had made a calculation that if the fencing is allowed to run its desired course, 18,000 residents belonging to 43 villages in the three districts of Chandel, Churachandpur and Ukhrul will be eventually deprived of their ancestral homes. The clamor over the recent intrusions by Myanmarese officials into the state’s territory has prompted the re-awakening of the past ghosts of the Yandaboo Treaty and frequent incidents of provoking removal of border pillars by Myanmar army. Many political parties have raised the same issues during the recent joint political party meeting and reverberation of the injustice served to the people of Manipur in past will surely continue.
Myanmar’s relationship with Manipur spanning over centuries has been rather combative reflecting the aggressiveness of the people residing on both sides and the existence of boundary dispute lacks any element of surprise.
The drafting committee has to decide whether it will serve its purpose if it progresses to differentiate the current border fencing controversy or treat the age-old land disputes as a whole in its write-up.
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