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The Plight Of Manipur

By Diana Ningthoujam

18 November, 2011
Countercurrents.org

As someone who was born and brought up in Manipur, and also as someone who has been living outside the state for more than half her life, the imbroglio which has consumed the state does not come as a surprise. To me, it is not even astonishing that an entire state of the world’s most populous democracy and a rising economic power can be held to ransom by a small ethnic group demanding a relatively modest amount of local administrative control. Manipur is no stranger to such blockades. You might as well say that Manipuris have become adept or rather adapted themselves to live in such situations. At the risk of sounding cynical, I’d have to say the state might have to brace itself for worse days ahead.

Again, it might sound implausible to mainland India but this tiny state of 22, 93,896 people has more than 30 militant outfits warring amongst each other while impinging upon the life of a fragile society. Apart from the fact that the state has been ruled endlessly by spineless and apathetic governments, one of the other reasons it has never been able to grow economically is the thriving presence of insurgents. Any attempt by a company to make an investment has been thwarted by them. How could any business house flourish when haftas in lakhs and crores are exacted from it? Let me illustrate with an example. As a child growing up in Manipur, I witnessed the expulsion of Bata from the state. If this multi-crore industry buckled under the demands of insurgents, how could smaller fish survive in this shark-infested pond? Manipur has not had a Bata store ever since.

I was in Manipur in September, going home after a gap of three years and the blockade was just completing its first month. While driving from the airport to the city I saw long, winding queues of vehicles on the road. My uncle very nonchalantly told me that he would have to spend the night at the petrol station to buy his share. My nephew also was planning to camp with his father, much to the dismay of my aunt. Schools might have to shut as vans will not ply, due to a paucity of fuel.

I did not read any reports in any of the major newspapers and about this, nor did my mother mention this. However, this time she emphatically told me, "The people of Manipur are very tired and angry. All essential commodities are causing a heavy dent on our pockets. Rice, vegetables, eggs, all have become a luxury. The blockade has driven up prices in Manipur by as much as 300%. Such hard times come along with living in a place where you were born and brought up. It is a pity.”

I was at home in the valley when the upheaval in the hills was running its course, the city grunted its way through the dust and grime. Nothing had changed in Manipur. So what if petrol costs Rs 170 per litre, so what if LPG costs Rs 2,000, so what if my uncle and scores of people have to bear the cold and chilly winds for petrol to get their vehicles up and running? Nothing has changed in Manipur, it is still reeling under an inefficient State government and an uncaring Central government. It still remains a state in a democratic country like India where innocent citizens can be killed by the army, a state where Irom Sharmila can fast as long as she wants.

So long as Manipur does not disturb the fabric of the national government, the state will remain a non-entity. With just one MP in the Rajya Sabha and two MLAs in the Lok Sabha, how much power can we assert? This comes back to my first point about why I do not find it astonishing that a state can be held hostage by a small ethnic group. This place and its people have faced and been facing many upheavals and much turmoil throughout their lives, and have witnessed so many blockades that scraping through lives with the bare minimum has become essential to existence. The economic blockade has, in fact, become part of the ‘culture’ of Manipur.

Nature has been bountiful to this state; the valley, where the capital is located, is surrounded by nine verdant hills. The soil is fertile and extremely arable to any type of crop. A place so beautiful and serene is so wrecked by violence, killings and blocakdes, that you feel a disservice is being done to nature. For such a tiny place, it is estimated that of the 8 million Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) in the world as many as 40,000 are in Manipur (UNAIDS). The sero-prevalance rate still remans the highest in the world. The first case of HIV in an IDU in India was discovered from Manipur. One of the main causes of this rampant abuse is a high rate of unemployment, which still remains a big drawback. Asheema Haobijam, a student who is studying medicine at Lady Hardinge puts it succinctly, "I have a brother who is so well educated and qualified, but he sits at home, unemployed. He is running from pillar to post in search of a job, but it is futile. He would have to cough up lakhs and crores as a bribe to even get a job at an LDC level. Such is the situation. On top of all this we have blockades, which are slowly smothering society."

More importantly, the present turf war between the Nagas and Kukis has all the makings of an ethnic conflict. These warring groups share a bloody history which goes back to the time when the British ruled India and also beyond. Through the 1990s over 1,000 people were killed in Kuki-Naga clashes in the hills, because the Kukis were allegedly asked to leave the Naga-settled areas. The Nagas believed that the hills belonged to them, while the Kukis migrated into the region after they were driven out from Myanmar’s Chin Hills in the 19th century. Such conflicts have affected the fragile equilibrium of the state many times. And such conflicts will always come back to haunt the state until the government takes a strong step and stops playing vote bank politics. With elections looming, they are to be held in February, the government is playing safe to much consternation of a large number of citizens.

With little or no development, not even a stage where it could be envisaged, the reality is more bitter than what is visible. In a state where its capital city experiences long hours of power cuts daily under the roster system, it is a long and winding road to self-sufficiency and progress. During the course of the 92- day blockade imposed by SHDDC, properties worth Rs 2.45 billion are estimated to have been lost. According to a Government report, the State exchequer suffered a loss of Rs 25.7 million every day during the blockade. Such wastage is a monstrosity when the state is stuttering with underdevelopment, rampant corruption and massive unemployment.

Even before the people could breathe a sigh of relief at midnight of October 31, 2011, when the Sadar Hills Districthood Demand Committee (SHDDC) lifted the longest ever economic blockade in the history of Manipur after 92 days, the two main Naga bodies in the State, the United Naga Council (UNC) and the All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM), decided to show their disapproval. On November 1, 2011, reacting strongly to the signing of the MoU between the government of Manipur and the SHDDC, they escalated their counter-blockade, which they launched on August 21. The state is still in gridlock.

Manipur has not fundamentally changed. There are crises and there will always be crises and this economic blockade will settle into place, alongside massive under development, rampant corruption, drug use, ethnic divides, frequent strikes and social upheaval.

Diana Ningthoujam is a working journalist. [email protected]

 

 



 


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