60,000 security personnel for what ? Opening up highways
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For nearly 730 days National Highway-2 or the Imphal to Dimapur road has been off limit for all Meiteis, courtesy the ethnic clash that erupted in all its ugliness on May 3, 2023. Likewise Imphal has been off limit for all the Kuki-Zo community during the same period. No Meiteis have taken the road route to go outside Manipur since May 4, 2023 and while this is a fact that stands and will go down in the history of the land, what has not been explained or studied deeply and extensively is the seeming lack of any effort from the side of the Government to clear the National Highway. This brings one back to the line maintained by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to the then Chief Minister N Biren, ‘You look after the valley, I will look after the hills,’ sometime after Manipur went up in flames in May of 2023. Meiteis staying off National Highway 2 and rightly so and one just have to recall the misadventure of the two young men who crossed Kanglatongbi and strayed into areas which are generally understood as Kuki strongholds. One must also certainly remember the conditions that were set for the release of the two hostages. And the understanding of buffer zones could not have been clearer than the misadventure of the two young men. Earlier too there have been reports of Meitei men who have gone missing after they crossed the line on the National Highway and entered Kuki areas. Even the Naga community, which has remained neutral in the ongoing clash, have been at the receiving end while crossing the areas dominated by the Kukis and the stand off that occurred between members of Senapati District Students’ Association (SDSA) and the Kuki vigilantes on the highway must still be vivid in the minds of everyone, especially in the face of the video clip of the confrontation that went viral on the social media. And so it has been that apart from the Nagas, it was members of the other neutral communities, the Pangals and non-locals who could only travel along NH-2. All drivers and handymen of passengers vehicles that ply along the said route are non-Meiteis, mostly the Pangals and some Nepalis and a few non-locals. This is the reality, a reality under which Manipur has been made to survive for nearly two years despite the rushing in of over 60,000 Central security personnel to the State. More than obvious that the despite the deployment of over 60,000 security personnel NH-2 is not safe at all for the Meiteis to travel and this is where one is left wondering what happened to the security personnel rushed to Manipur ?
This question is also raised in the backdrop of the fact that newsprint and printing material being transported on trucks and meant for The Sangai Express was captured and set on fire at Kangpokpi by suspected cadres of the Kuki National Front on August 7, 2024. This despite the fact that security personnel were supposed to be on duty to secure the National Highway and contacting the office of the PRO of IGAR (South) was met with the response that the area of incident comes under the IGAR (East). A response to a request to send the contact number of the PRO of IGAR (East) so that necessary inquiries could be made came only after news that newsprint and other printing material had been made a bonfire of. An incident that comes to mind in the face of the announcement of Chief Secretary PK Singh that the National Highways would be opened shortly. With Manipur now under President’s Rule, one has to go by what the Chief Secretary has said but one wonders why no such efforts were taken up earlier, especially after the Union Home Minister told the then Chief Minister ‘You look after the valley, I will look after the hills.’ It was with a reason why The Sangai Express gave primacy to the line, ‘National Highways to be opened shortly’ from the answers given to the media by the Chief Secretary for here is a case of the Centre seeming to have woken up to the fact that Manipur has been literally cut off for nearly two years now with the Government not doing anything to clear the highway. Why it is not safe for Meiteis to take this route is clear but why the Government has not done anything to clear this route has not been answered.
This question is also raised in the backdrop of the fact that newsprint and printing material being transported on trucks and meant for The Sangai Express was captured and set on fire at Kangpokpi by suspected cadres of the Kuki National Front on August 7, 2024. This despite the fact that security personnel were supposed to be on duty to secure the National Highway and contacting the office of the PRO of IGAR (South) was met with the response that the area of incident comes under the IGAR (East). A response to a request to send the contact number of the PRO of IGAR (East) so that necessary inquiries could be made came only after news that newsprint and other printing material had been made a bonfire of. An incident that comes to mind in the face of the announcement of Chief Secretary PK Singh that the National Highways would be opened shortly. With Manipur now under President’s Rule, one has to go by what the Chief Secretary has said but one wonders why no such efforts were taken up earlier, especially after the Union Home Minister told the then Chief Minister ‘You look after the valley, I will look after the hills.’ It was with a reason why The Sangai Express gave primacy to the line, ‘National Highways to be opened shortly’ from the answers given to the media by the Chief Secretary for here is a case of the Centre seeming to have woken up to the fact that Manipur has been literally cut off for nearly two years now with the Government not doing anything to clear the highway. Why it is not safe for Meiteis to take this route is clear but why the Government has not done anything to clear this route has not been answered.