Highway blockade is illegal. This has been ruled by the Supreme Court of India. No two ways about it. The Central Government too had asked the State Government to employ all necessary measures to ensure the smooth flow of goods laden vehicles along the National Highways in the face of the more than 100 days economic blockade imposed by the United Naga Council (UNC). All these should more than drive home the point that the ongoing economic blockade is illegal and goes against the law of the land. The question however is whether it is in the fitness of things to recommend to the Centre to declare the UNC as an unlawful organisation in the face of the economic blockade. There also remains the question of how the Centre will respond to the move, initiated not by the State Government, but the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). Herein lies the slip between the intention of the State Government and what it has actually done. Given that the ongoing blockade has been highly politicised, with the BJP led Government at the Centre and the Congress Government in Imphal, trading charges and counter charges, one cannot help but get the uneasy feeling that the latest move of the CLP may just be another case of trying to pass the buck to the Centre. And why not ? Remember election to the State Assembly is less than a month away and judging by the reality around, no stone has been left unturned to capitalise on the issue and gain political mileage ahead of the election.
If the Congress party was really serious about reining in the activities of the UNC, then an all political party meeting could have been convened and the opinion of all sought. Moreover it should ideally have been the Cabinet which should take the decision of despatching the request to ban the UNC and not the CLP. Trying to gain political mileage out of the suffering of the common people can boomerang on the party which has been in power for the last 15 years in the State and one wonders why this bare point did not register in the minds of the Congress leaders here. Moreover it also stands that such a move will only further deepen the divide between the hills and the valley or between the Meiteis and the Nagas. For too long the inter-community relationship has been politicised and this can best be seen in the deep divide and deep suspicion between people of different communities. Moreover it also stands that banning the UNC will not have any impact on the economic blockade, rather it may only get more stringent. Or is this what the Congress want ?
Source: The Sangai Express
