It is now obvious to all. No one wants to resolve the ongoing economic blockade, with the Congress and the BJP more keen on delivering political points against each other and the United Naga Council more than ready to continue with the economic blockade. Caught in the middle are the public, the ones who have been directly facing the impact of the economic blockade and it is not at all pleasant. The Assembly election is obviously central to the stand adopted by the two political parties and ancestral land is the cry which has been raised by the UNC and several Naga bodies. If the Congress Government here, under Chief Minister O Ibobi, created the seven new districts, particularly, Kangpokpi and Jiribam districts with an eye on the polls, the BJP at the Centre has been trying to find the weak spot in the armour of the Congress here and in the process is trying to make the Congress pay for it via the sufferings of the people. The political calculation here is simple. Let the UNC continue with the blockade and in the process let the angst of the people turn against the State Government and then reap the dividends when election comes. Or maybe the BJP has a better idea than this, but it all boils down to the Assembly election. On the other hand, the Congress, after creating the seven new districts, wants to pass the baton on to the BJP led Central Government on the pretext that National Highways come under the Centre. Which way the political wind blows, as understood within the parameter of the upcoming Assembly election, remains to be seen, but let it be clear to all that the blame game that one has been witnessing ever since the economic blockade came into force should be seen within the context of the upcoming Assembly election.
Dangerous brand of politics and this is what is unacceptable. The blame game may also be seen in the manner in which the ball has been tossed around in the context of arranging a tri-partite talk between the State Government, the UNC and the Central Government. If the State Government failed to respond to the invitation of the Centre to have a talk with the UNC on November 15 last year at Delhi, this time round, the Centre has not responded to the approach of the State Government to arrange such a talk to bring an end to the impasse. Instead it has deemed it better to let the State Government take the initiative of inviting the UNC to the negotiating table with the Centre acting as the observer or whatever term one may give. Playing politics with the lifelines of the people and there is nothing amusing about this. This is not the time to try and take political mileage out of the situation but for Delhi and Imphal to co-operate and see how to proceed and get the blockade lifted. Not likely that the State Government will roll back the decision to create the new districts and highly unlikely that the UNC will unilaterally take the decision to lift the ongoing economic blockade. The task at hand then will be for the Centre to see how it can negotiate with the NSCN (IM) which in turn can talk with the UNC and see how things may be settled.
Source: The Sangai Express
