Give more teeth to War on Drugs campaign Selective silence of CoTU, KIM
|
Is the War on Drugs on track ? Or has it managed to put a check on the large scale poppy plantations in the hills of Manipur, particularly in the areas where the Kuki-Zos dominate ? Or has it resulted in a sort of a confrontation between communities, best exemplified by what is going on at K Songlung (II) village in Kangpokpi district ? This question should be understood in the backdrop of what happened at K Songlung village in Kangpokpi district, just a day after cadres of the Kamson group of the Zeliangrong United Front went on the offensive and torched two/three huts ostensibly set up by poppy planters and to house the products needed to plant the poppy. Just 24 hours after the huts were set ablaze, the Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) and the United Naga Council (UNC) sat down together, discussed the ‘arson’ and in one voice con- demned the act of targeting the huts, calling for peace and sanity to prevail. The Kangpokpi based Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), went a step or two ahead of condemning the incident and imposed a shutdown on the National Highways, effectively cutting off people’s movement from Senapati to Imphal, prompting the Senapati based Naga People’s Organisation (NPO) to simultaneously impose a counter blockade ! Before the stand off could snowball into a major rift between the NPO and CoTU or between Senapati and Kangpokpi, news have come in of the two organisations rolling back their blockade and counter- blockade stand ! A sort of a temporary truce, but let it not be forgotten, the crux of the issue has been neatly sidestepped by KIM, CoTU and even the UNC while discussing the arson at K Songlung, just a day earlier. Poppy plantation and by extension the drug network and to the Zeliangrong people and the ZUF, the poppy was planted on land that originally belongs to them. A potent cocktail of immigration, forceful occupation of a land belonging to another tribe and poppy plantation which is directly linked to the drug trade. That CoTU and KIM would not say a word on poppy plantation was a foregone conclusion, but UNC and NPO should not lose sight of the bigger issue at hand, the coming up of unaccounted villages and the booming drug trade that has already taken a heavy toll on the youngsters, cutting across community lines. Waging a campaign against poppy cultivation and by extension the drug network should never be read along community lines, for this is a menace that eats into the vitals of every community and the drug trade needs to be dealt at the starting point, which is obviously poppy plantation. The issue should be seen and understood in its correct perspective, and any step against poppy cultivation should not be seen and understood as an offensive against any community. Why is CoTU silent on this ? How about KIM, an organisation that claims to have a pan Manipur outlook, a characteristic it has demonstrated down the decades ?
The Government, which is now under Delhi, should also sit back, think and question whether the much publicised War on Drugs campaign is on track or not. Is the Government going to be satisfied with only razing large swathes of poppy plantation to the ground ? Why hasn’t it bothered to go further than this ? Has the Government actually, ever sat down once to discuss and understand where the harvested poppy crops are to be headed ? Has it ever given a thought to why an armed group, the Kamson group of the ZUF in this case, should take it upon themselves to destroy poppy plantations ? It would help if the Government can take another one, long look at the way in which the War on Drugs has been enforced on the ground. Target the poppy fields and in the process try to go further and see who are the persons behind the large scale plantation. Exactly how many have been pulled up or arrested for planting poppy ? It would also help to know what has happened to the two or three Kuki village chiefs who were pulled up for poppy plantation while the popular Government was in place here. The Government would need to do much more if the War on Drugs campaign is to proceed on the right track. Razing poppy fields to the ground is but just the start. Proceed from there and start convicting those found involved.
The Government, which is now under Delhi, should also sit back, think and question whether the much publicised War on Drugs campaign is on track or not. Is the Government going to be satisfied with only razing large swathes of poppy plantation to the ground ? Why hasn’t it bothered to go further than this ? Has the Government actually, ever sat down once to discuss and understand where the harvested poppy crops are to be headed ? Has it ever given a thought to why an armed group, the Kamson group of the ZUF in this case, should take it upon themselves to destroy poppy plantations ? It would help if the Government can take another one, long look at the way in which the War on Drugs has been enforced on the ground. Target the poppy fields and in the process try to go further and see who are the persons behind the large scale plantation. Exactly how many have been pulled up or arrested for planting poppy ? It would also help to know what has happened to the two or three Kuki village chiefs who were pulled up for poppy plantation while the popular Government was in place here. The Government would need to do much more if the War on Drugs campaign is to proceed on the right track. Razing poppy fields to the ground is but just the start. Proceed from there and start convicting those found involved.