Strong words of caution from FNCC Need to note the reality
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Strong words and it would be wrong for Delhi and Raj Bhavan to sweep things under the carpet. And the Foothill Naga Co-ordination Committee (FNCC) appears to have every reason to strike such a tough posture. No SoO camps wanted in our land, is the one line statement laid down by the FNCC in a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister and submitted through the Governor. Asserting a stand at the right time, is the line that comes to mind, for the tough stance adopted by FNCC has come about even as a ban on the movement of Kuki people is on in the areas or villages that lie on the purported German-Tiger Road that seeks to connect Churachandpur and Kangpokpi. A route for drugs and illicit arms is a line that has been tagged to the said German-Tiger Road and such an allegation must be understood in the backdrop of the vast poppy cultivation in the hills of Manipur, the arrest of many drug couriers, with people from the Kuki-Chin-Zo community making up majority of the arrested people in different parts of the North East region as well as in other cities and the growing allegations of land grab and in the process claiming ancestral rights to the land etc. To cite a recent example, the arrest of two girls, Laljamluvai and Lalthangliani with seven kilogrammes of cocaine worth Rs 14.69 crore in Bangalore just a few days back should underline how far the drug nexus has spread. How did such a huge consignment of drugs make its way to Bangalore is the question that should be probed and Rs 14.69 crore is a sum which points to the involvement of bigger fishes. The FNCC also went on to assert that Separate Administration, a demand raised by the Kuki armed groups and first vocalised by the Kuki-Chin-Zo MLAs and frontal organisations, should not touch the land of the indigenous people, particularly the Nagas and this where an open ended question remains on the fate of Kangpokpi. A district, the creation of which has been strongly opposed by the Nagas under the aegis of the United Naga Council (UNC). The apprehension aired by the FNCC should also be understood against the historicity of the emergence of Kuki settlements, particularly along National Highway-2, from Kanglatong-bi to Kangpokpi. It should be understood and viewed against the rise in the number of Kuki-Chin-Zo MLAs in the last couple of decades and look back at the large number of Kuki immigrants who sneaked into Manipur during the Burmanisation programme of Ne Win in the neighbouring country in 1967. A point which was brought out so lucidly, not by anyone else, but by a certain Mr Paolienlal Haokip in an article in a publication of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies back on May 23, 2002.
As fits a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister, the FNCC took the trouble of detailing how the Naga people have been at the receiving end of the excesses of SoO cadres and this predates the ongoing clash between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Chin-Zo people which erupted on May 3, 2023. As the FNCC put it, Kuki militants abducted three civilians for ransom on March 10, 2023. Then on March 12, 2023, a JCB excavator and a scooty were burnt at Leilon village, while on June 18, 2023, a Naga home was torched by armed Kuki militants. The aggression of the Kuki armed militants were spelt out in minute details in the memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister and Delhi should read the cases spelt out against the line, ‘Presence of Kuki SoO militants camps in Naga ancestral land may trigger an irreversible communal unrest that may surpass the tragic turmoil witnessed on May 3, 2023.’ New Delhi cannot afford to brush aside these words of caution and it should be clear that playing ‘favourites with the Kuki SoO groups’ is akin to playing with fire. The voice of protest and opposition raised by the FNCC should be understood and appreciated and Delhi should stop toying with the politics of ‘pitching one group of people against the other,’ for such politics is akin to playing with human lives. Move away all the SoO camps from areas where the Kuki militants are known to have pursued their agenda with impunity. Manipur should not be made to pay the price of geo-politics.
As fits a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister, the FNCC took the trouble of detailing how the Naga people have been at the receiving end of the excesses of SoO cadres and this predates the ongoing clash between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Chin-Zo people which erupted on May 3, 2023. As the FNCC put it, Kuki militants abducted three civilians for ransom on March 10, 2023. Then on March 12, 2023, a JCB excavator and a scooty were burnt at Leilon village, while on June 18, 2023, a Naga home was torched by armed Kuki militants. The aggression of the Kuki armed militants were spelt out in minute details in the memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister and Delhi should read the cases spelt out against the line, ‘Presence of Kuki SoO militants camps in Naga ancestral land may trigger an irreversible communal unrest that may surpass the tragic turmoil witnessed on May 3, 2023.’ New Delhi cannot afford to brush aside these words of caution and it should be clear that playing ‘favourites with the Kuki SoO groups’ is akin to playing with fire. The voice of protest and opposition raised by the FNCC should be understood and appreciated and Delhi should stop toying with the politics of ‘pitching one group of people against the other,’ for such politics is akin to playing with human lives. Move away all the SoO camps from areas where the Kuki militants are known to have pursued their agenda with impunity. Manipur should not be made to pay the price of geo-politics.