Amidst the continuing demand for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit system in Manipur, the question as to why the system has not been so successful in Nagaland, while it continues to be almost perfectly in place in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh is pertinent. In Mizoram or Arunachal Pradesh, regardless of whether you are a tribal or non-tribal, if you are not indigenous to the state, you cannot enter without the ILP. And this norm is strictly enforced, particularly if you enter these States by road. The only concessions are for those people who travel to these States for short seminars and conferences, but even they would have to produce the invitation cards extended to them by the local hosts of these conferences at the check gates if they have not acquired the ILP from the officially nominated government counters. Those who have travelled by road in Nagaland will know the scrutiny is not as strict in the State. If you are tribal looking (in the Northeast context), and this includes Meiteis, you are normally let off.
The tricky situation for Nagaland is, most of the trucks and passenger buses travelling on the sector of Highway 39 that connects Dimapur with Imphal, are people from Manipur. Many if not most of the non-Northeastern looking passengers are also headed for Manipur, therefore claim they are only in transit presence in Nagaland. Even during the 1990s, this fact was already inducing the Nagaland police personnel at the check gates, in particular Chumukedima, the little township from where the actual ascent to Kohima begins, to drop their guards. Those who frequently travelled along this highway during the period will remember that all plainsmen Indians, or Bangladeshi immigrants for that matter, were required to get off their buses and report at the check gate and show their ILP passes. Nagaland domiciles and Manipuris (and term is used here to signify all ethnic groups indigenous to Manipur) were automatically exempted from going through this exercise. The routine would be, when the Imphal bound night passenger buses land at Chumukedima at daybreak, most of the passengers would be still asleep. One or two Nagaland police personnel, with similar uniforms as Manipur police commandos, would get into each of the buses and walk the aisles checking the faces of the passengers identifying non-tribal and summoning them out of the buses to the police check gate, even as the tribal looking passengers fall back to sleep. Most, if not all passengers thus summoned to the check gate, normally did not have the ILP pass, but they would come back into the buses probably after having paid token customary tips after explaining their destination was Manipur. It is imaginable how non-locals who had Nagaland as destination, could also be using Manipur as alibi to get into Nagaland.
The interesting point is, if the ILP system or a similar system were to become vogue officially in Manipur, Nagaland`™s own ILP system would reciprocally become more meaningful and fit to the purpose. Having said this, Manipur needs to carefully weigh all options in working through the problem. The ILP is an archaic regulation meant for a purpose not exactly the same that it is being demanded for in Manipur today, and may not be best suited to the modern times and its needs. It could for instance sound the death knell of the nascent tourism industry in the State. According to a recent survey published in some national media, of all the Northeast States, Manipur saw the highest jump in the inflow of tourists during last year, followed quite some distance behind by Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland. Among the many reasons for this, it would be reasonably safe to presume, is that Manipur has no entry restrictions. This being the case, IFP will continue to stand by its contention throughout the campaign for ILP implementation that what must be sought should not be the ILP with all its bells and whistles. A legislation which seeks to prevent transfers of land ownership from local hands should do. The spirit of the demand however is well taken. Small indigenous populations can easily become marginalised in their own lands in the face of uncontrolled immigration, the examples for which are everywhere in the world. In the Northeast, the cases of Tripura and Sikkim are prominent. It will be recalled, even the eight year long Assam Agitation against foreigners in the early 1980s was born out of this same fear of demographic reversal. In the same vein, the periodic murderous ethnic riots in the Bodoland Autonomous Territorial Council in recent times have the same malaise as roots. Nari Rushtomji, an ICS officer known for his commitment to profession and the country, and equally for his love of the Northeast, in particular Sikkim, watched these radical changes of demography with sadness while he was in service. In his `Enchanted Frontiers`, he notes with sadness the manner in which a kingdom he loved, Sikkim, disappeared and reappeared as a different country altogether in just a few decades of the mid 20th Century in the face of unchecked Nepali immigration, and pleaded why the apprehensions of small indigenous communities of such a predicament should be seen with sympathy. It does not amount to standing in opposition to the national mainstream current either.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam