EVERYBODY LOVES A GOOD BLOCKADE
As an election gambit, the move to create seven new districts may work for CM Ibobi Singh. But a four-month economic blockade of two highways continues, and nobody seems to know or care how it might end
AT FIRST GLANCE, S. Milan, a soft-spoken, bespectacled Naga man in his late 40s does not fit the profile. He is, after all, the leader of an organisation that has enforced a fourmonth blockade of two national highways, the economic lifeline of Manipur. But the general secretary of the United Naga Council (UNC), the apex civil organisation of the Nagas in Manipur, flares up animatedly when asked about the harassment of ordinary citizens because of the blockade. Thanks to it, there are serpentine lines outside petrol pumps, LPG cylinders cost Rs 2,000 and prices of pulses and vegetables have doubled.
Ensconced in a sofa in a guesthouse in the state’s Naga-dominated Senapati district, Milan’s voice shivers with anger as he says: “This is the only language of protest the state government and the Centre understand. This is the reason why you have come from the Indian mainland to write about us.”
The ongoing blockade of the two key national highways—NH-2, which connects Imphal to the rest of the country through Nagaland, and NH-37, which connects the Manipur capital with Assam (see
map)—began on November 1 as a protest against Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh’s announcement that his government would create seven new districts in the state. Both roads crisscross the Naga-dominated hill areas of the state where the UNC commands considerable influence. “Between 1981 and 1998, the state government signed four MoUs with Naga organisations such as the UNC and the All Naga Students Association of Manipur (ANSAM), saying no administrative change will be made in Naga ancestral land without consulting the stakeholders. In 2011, the Centre had also assured us of the same,” says Milan.
The Imphal valley accounts for 23 per cent of the total land area of Manipur; the surrounding hills make up the rest. The valley shelters 59 per cent of the total population, primarily Meiteis, while the hills are inhabited by the Nagas (18 per cent) and Kukis (8 per cent). Forty of the state’s 60 assembly constituencies are in the valley where Meitei support influences electoral outcomes. The Nagas and the Kukis are the deciding factors in 20 hill constituencies. There is a long history of ethnic rivalry among the three communities and economic blockades are
frequently adopted as a form of protest and self-assertion.
With eyes clearly on the elections scheduled for March 4 and 8, Ibobi announced the district reorganisation decision on a day when the Meiteis and Kukis were celebrating local festivals. The creation of new districts has been a demand of both communities for over four decades, and Ibobi could not have found a better time to announce it. The UNC reacted with a blockade but the chief minister did not budge. On December 9, the state government issued a gazette notification creating seven new districts by bifurcating seven of the state’s existing nine districts. All five hill districts—Ukhrul (70 per cent Nagas), Senapati (75 per cent Nagas), Tamenglong (65 per cent Nagas), Chandel (75 per cent Kukis) and Churachandpur (98 per cent Kukis)—have been bifurcated. “We have accomplished something that no previous government could do. The creation of the districts was purely for administrative convenience,” says Ibobi.
THE UNC DOES NOT BUY Ibobi’s logic. Of particular concern to them is the creation of two districts—Kangpokpi, carved out of the Sadar Hill subdivision of Senapati district, and Noney, carved out of Tamenglong. “The valley comes under the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, but the hills don’t come under this law. The land here belongs to the people. The new entities have also been made revenue districts, taking away our rights over ancestral land,” says Joseph Adani, finance secretary of ANSAM. In fact, ownership of land has been at the root of several ethnic conflicts in the state. While tribals can buy land in the valley, a non-tribal cannot own property in the hills.
The UNC even sees a greater political design in the Kukis’ demand for a district in Sadar Hills. “Their objective goes beyond getting a district. They want an independent homeland,” says Milan. The chief minister dismisses the UNC’s claim. “Different communities inhabit the districts and they are not the sole property of any community. It was a collective decision taken after serious consultations for a long time. Remember, my deputy CM is a Naga and there are other Naga representatives in the government,” says Ibobi.
For a change, the CM finds support for his action among civil society leaders. “The creation of new districts means development and administrative convenience,” says social scientist Dhanabir Laishram. “Earlier, in most districts, people had to travel for over six hours to reach the district HQ, even for routine jobs like getting a birth certificate. This blockade is engineered by the rebel group, the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah). It doesn’t want development as it will reduce their hold in Naga villages.”
The UNC, however, dismisses such allegations. “We have absolutely nothing to do with the NSCN (I-M),” says Milan. “We want an end to this crisis and that is why we participated in two rounds of tripartite talks organised by New Delhi.”
As expected, the two new districts have pleased the Kuki leadership. “Of course, we are grateful to the CM. We have an equal number of MoUs with the government about declaring Sadar Hill area a district. Are the Naga MoUs more sacrosanct than ours?” asks Paotinthang Lupheng, president of
“We accomplished something that no former government could do. The creation of the districts was purely for administrative convenience” Okram Ibobi Singh, Manipur chief minister
the Kuki Students Organisation in Imphal.
CM Ibobi’s decision has changed electoral equations in the state almost overnight. The Congress party, bogged down by anti-incumbency and dissidence among its own MLAs, suddenly has a spring in its step. By creating the districts, Ibobi has almost neutralised the edge the BJP had gained over the past one year.
After the success in Assam last year, the BJP was hoping to do the same in Manipur. National general secretary Ram Madhav and Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a political platform involving 11 regional parties formed by the BJP, have spent considerable time in the state. And the results were showing. The saffron party, which could not win a single seat in the 2012 assembly polls, won 10 seats in last year’s civic polls. With its Hindutva plank, the BJP had hoped to enjoy a natural constituency among the Hindu Meiteis. The party’s confidence can be gauged from the fact that it is contesting all 60 seats in the state, up from 19 in 2012.
BUT CM IBOBI’S LATE MOVE has not only seen him emerge as a hero, subtly championing Meitei pride, but also put the BJP in a Catch-22 situation. The chief minister has left no opportunity to fuel fears among the Meiteis and Kukis that the agreement bet ween the BJP-led Union government and the NSCN (I-M) may infringe upon the territorial integrity of Manipur, that the Centre may give in to their long-standing demand for a ‘greater Nagaland’, carving out Naga-dominated areas of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. The discomfort in the BJP camp is palpable as both Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Sarma have had to reiterate that the territorial integrity of Manipur will not be compromised. The fact that the Naga People’s Front (NPF) is a coalition partner of the BJP at the Centre (and in the ruling coalition in Naga land), and is also contesting in Manipur is a cause for concern among valley voters. “Can the BJP categorically say they will not join hands with the NPF after the state elections?” asks Erendro Leichombam, convenor of the People’s Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA), a party founded by Irom Sharmila.
Ticket distribution may also impact the BJP’s fortunes. The old cadre are unhappy as several turncoats from the Con g r ess and other parties have got tickets. BJP sources says it is banking on the success of the NPF in the hills. If it wins 20 seats in the valley and NPF gets 10, together they can stake a claim to power. “We’ll form the governm ent. This new districts’ gimmick has annoyed everyone,” says Sarma.
A new player in electoral politics, Irom Sharmila, the face of a 16-year protest demanding the repeal of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act, is hoping her PRJA will sow the seeds of change in the state. The PRJA campaign received a shot in the arm following Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s public support for it. His tweet saying he had donated Rs 50,000 to the party gave a huge fillip to the party’s crowdsourcing efforts to raise funds. The PRJA has three candidates in the race, including Sharmila and Erendro. The latter, who has a masters degree in economic policy from Harvard University, is the driving force behind PRJA, organising public meetings, raising funds and running the social media campaign. “Our three demands are: appoint a Lokayukta, create jobs and employment opportunities and revoke AFSPA,” Erendro says.
In the meantime, nobody in Manipur has a convincing answer to the basic question: how can an unarmed civil society organisation enforce an economic blockade for over three months, while the state and Centre look on helplessly? Both parties pass the buck on this. “I think there is a political conspiracy to divert attention from the failures of the Congress government. Why is the economic blockade continuing? We have given the state enough central forces, but it is not using them,” says home minister Singh. The state says the Centre has sent only 29 companies of paramilitary forces as against the demand for 60.
According to a senior defence ministry official posted in Manipur, it’s not possible for the armed forces to keep vigil on the roads 24x7 as the roads are a mess and the hill terrain is difficult. “There have been ambushes of supply convoys. It can happen at any stretch. It’s next to impossible to guard the entire stretch of the highway. The problem needs a political solution,” he says. A top cop claims that more trucks are entering the state during the blockade than during normal days. “The blockade helps political leaders. We do our job of escorting the trucks to the valley. Yet scarcity is created because it earns political and financial benefits,” he says.
Amid all this and the controversies over the continued presence of the armed forces, Bharat Kumar, a 47-year-old CRPF jawan is waiting at a lonely checkpost, around 15 km northwest of Imphal, for a truck bearing registration number AS 01 GC 1555. This will be the last truck of the day coming through NH-37 and his duty is not over till it passes through to Imphal. “It is likely to reach here by midnight, maybe later. I cannot leave this post till then,” he says. It’s only 5 pm now and Kumar has a long night ahead. It’s the season of waiting in Manipur, waiting for food, petrol, votes, peace. Nobody knows when it will all end.