Manipur News

If what the state has witnessed in the last few months still has not served as the wakeup call for everybody, let it be said they never will wake up. This will be unfortunate, for closing one`™s eyes to reality and pretending falsehood is real can only mean ensuring periodic explosions of the time bombs the place is now familiar with, and not defusing them and rendering them harmless. There have been plenty of very nasty but more often than not baseless charges exchanged, especially on the unregulated space of the internet where the mindless can pretend to have a mind, highlighting once again the deep divisions between the hills and valley, Outer Manipur and Inner Manipur, tribals and non-tribals etc. There have also been political leaders and dignitaries from neighbouring states shamelessly taking their turns to fish in Manipur`™s troubled waters, never once recalling the conditions they criticise in Manipur are no better or sometimes even worse in their own states. In these exchanges, the pattern that has emerged is for the hill districts to charge the valley districts of having led them by the short hairs all along, exploiting and taking advantage on account of the what they believe is lop-sided political power equation. By contrast, the valley districts have also been counter-alleging that hills have no other politics stronger than their shared valley-envy which is capable of uniting even those who have in the past gone on ethnic cleansing wars, and that they would blame the valley for all their ills, bad roads to bad weather.

While most of the charges flying around on the internet are trash and nothing to seriously take cognizance of, there have also been some charges with tangible handles, therefore can be verified with little difficulties. Some of the charges are unwitting but arguably many others are deliberate and sinister twists given to facts on the ground by vested interests. One of these charges is the idea of land grab by the valley dwellers in the hills districts. Indeed, of the most vocal charges in the current agitation against the so called three `anti-tribal bills` passed by the Manipur Legislative Assembly recently is the one that has to do with the Manipur Land Revenue and Reforms Act, 1960. The bill regarding this Act says nothing of the hills, and the MLR&LR Act itself is valley specific. It is an Act passed by the Parliament, for Manipur was still a Union Territory in 1960, so it cannot have been fashioned to suit the vested interest of the valley either. Some land strips and hillocks, mostly those embedded within the valley districts, have been in the past brought under this Act, but what is often mistaken is, bringing any land under this Act does not necessary mean that land has been taken over by the valley. Moreover to say valley cannot have any interest in hillocks such as Langgol Ching or Ngarian Ching, would be ludicrous.

The same confusion is there in comparing the 20 reserved hill constituencies and 40 non-reserved valley constituencies, portraying this as injustice. The reserved constituencies in the hills are exclusively for the hill population and no non-tribal from the valley can either vote or contest for these seats, but this cannot be said of the non-reserved valley constituencies. These are open seats and any domicile of these constituencies, tribal or non-tribal can vote or contest them. Since population movement is allowed in the valley, this is not a small matter. Be it in the hills or in the valley, increasing reserved seats would disenfranchise many. Increasing non-reserved seats in the valley or hills, would guarantee universal adult franchise right. Like these charges, there have also been allegations of government job usurpations of reserved tribal seats by the valley.

These charges are serious and need to be cleared beyond doubts once and for all. Who has been grabbing whose land, jobs, developmental money etc., can easily be established if the government commissions some specific white papers on these issues, baring relevant government records on them. If there have been transgressions, how and when, and under which political and bureaucratic leadership these happened etc, should be made clear, and once this is done, remedial measures can be thought of. If on the other hand, these white papers establish how false these charges have been, it should remove the wind from the sails of those making these charges. Once this is done, perhaps it would be time for the government to press the administrative refresh button, and if essential, work out a comprehensive autonomy model for the hills and the valley. If the hills want the 6th Schedule ADCs, it should be granted. The valley too then must have a matching autonomy, but our pleas is, this should not be the 6th Schedule, but a more imaginative, secular and scientific one, designed to be ready for easy integration with the modern economy, and to take the place to the future and not return it to the past.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/09/time-for-white-papers/