As Manipur sinks to one of its lowest moments, what is evidently missing is any semblance of governance. The government it seems has abandoned its responsibility of keeping law or order, leaving this onerous matter in the hands of anybody who wants to assume it. Utter chaos is the result. Although since yesterday, ever since the breakthrough in the talks between the JCILPS and the government, there is some calm returning, it can never be certain when the state will plunge back into inferno. This is so, because the issue of the demand for introduction of the Inner Line Permit System in the state is far from over. Even if all goes well as regards the demand of the JCILPS to have the five points it raised included in the new proposed draft bill, there is no certainty that the bill will have a smooth passage in the Assembly to become law. In fact, the possibility that it is kept in abeyance by the Governor or the President of India, which actually means the Union Cabinet, is not entirely remote, particularly if it is seen as stepping outside the limits set by the Constitution of India. In the event of this happening, the dreadful question in everybody`™s mind is what next? Will the paralysis of the state administration continue ad infinitum and at what cost?
If the government had kept its ears close to the ground and had felt the pulse of the people accurately, it would probably have been given the foresight to anticipate the growing apprehension amongst the people at the prospect of being demographically marginalised, thereby prompting it to take remedial measures in advance. It also only needed to have looked around to see how similar apprehensions have resulted in murderous violence all over the Northeast and neighbouring regions and be concerned enough to take precautions. Deadly demography wars still break out periodically in Bodoland in Assam. There have also been similar wars in the state`™s Karbi Anglong and North Cachar regions. Earlier still there was the Assam Agitation for deportation of `foreigners` which lasted five long years, climaxing in the gruesome massacre at Nellie in 1983. It is also extremely relevant that the Assam Agitation in the end yielded little with regards to the central issue of restructuring demography, though in the bargain the state received an IIT, an oil refinery and such other sops. Meghalaya too which is as much in the grip of a demographic transformation as Manipur, sees these ethnic tensions periodically. Nagaland which has the Inner Line Permit System, is still not free of this scourge. Two other Northeast states, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, which also have the Inner Line System, are relatively better off, though the fear of an outsider invasion is not altogether absent, as was evident in the Chakma and Bru issues the two states were afflicted by. Beyond the Northeast, there have been the Rohingya issue which today has become a grave international concern, and a scar on Myanmar`™s reputation. Tibet`™s complaint of Han Chinese overwhelming their original population, and Bhutan`™s controversial eviction of nearly 2 lakh Nepalis from South Bhutan in the 1980s, are some indication how widespread this problem is in the entire region.
These are worrying trends and should have kept the Manipur government alert. In fact, it should have in anticipation, come up with the move to check immigration through appropriate legislation on its own, long ago. Such a stitch in time would have saved plenty. Now, since things were allowed to slip to a critical point, it was only to be expected that that street politics would ultimately take over the agenda. Look at the turmoil the state is in and it does seem this will not be the end either. For once, if the entire government establishment had kept away its obsession with easy unearned money from corruption, and put their entire energy in the serious business of fine tuning the government machinery and making it run as it should, the place would have been saved of the endless chain of tragedies it is forced to bear. But, there is little doubt even now that once the current problem settles to somewhat an equilibrium, it will be back to square one, and the official establishment would be back to the old game of organised robbery of the state exchequer, forgetting all about governance.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam