Preparing for home visit of Th Muivah Date set on October 22
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Fifteen years is a pretty long time and a child born in 2010 would be getting ready to appear for her High School Leaving Certificate Examination (HSLC) now and the socio-political reality of Manipur too has undergone many changes. Back then it was the Congress which was at the helm of affairs both in New Delhi and at Imphal. Back then supremo of the NSCN (IM) Thuingaleng Muivah was 15 years younger. The planned visit to his home village at Somdal did not fructify back in 2010 and this time the script should run somewhat differently. What was Manipur back in 2010 is vastly different from the Manipur of 2025 and there have been changes. Back in 2010, the June 18, 2001 uproar against the ‘ceasefire without territorial limits’ clause of the Bangkok Declaration of June 14, 2001 was fresher in the minds of the people but this is 2025 and much water has flowed down the Imphal river since then. And 2010 is better understood in the context of what unfolded in 2001 and this is where it becomes important for Manipur and India to understand that the June 18, 2001 uproar was against the Bangkok Declaration of June 14, 2001 and it was not against any community. Offices of political parties were targeted and so was the State Assembly, which is today known as the Old Assembly complex. The protests went on for days and situation calmed down only when the phrase ‘ceasefire without territorial limits’ was scrapped from the Bangkok Declaration and the intense protest was always against the decision of the Government and not against any community. Obviously tension was high but it never got reduced to an exercise of targeting any community either at Imphal or at any of the Naga dominated districts such as Ukhrul and Senapati. Something very different from what happened at Churachandpur on May 3, 2023. A rally christened Tribal Solidarity March, taken out ostensibly against the ruling of the High Court of Manipur, which just asked the Government to Manipur to send the ethnographic and socio-economic report of the Meiteis to the Ministry of Union Tribal Affairs, got reduced to an exercise of targeting the Meiteis at Churachandpur and Torbung. Imphal retaliated only late in the evening of May 3, 2023 and The Sangai Express had repeatedly recalled that it was in the evening of the said date that a former Kuki MLA dropped in at the office of this newspaper to inquire about something not at all related to the mayhem that was happening at Churachandpur.
It is against this reality that Th Muivah is scheduled to visit his native village on October 22. Already in the winter of his life, it is only right that the rebel leader who has spent the better part of his life in the jungles, is given the welcome he deserves at his birthplace. The need for a final pact, the process for which started back in 1997, will surely hang heavy in the air as he lands at Somdal village and it is against this fact that Manipur will tune in to listen what he has got to say. And it stands that the message he brings will be awaited with hope and expectations by some, while for others it could be a case of trepidation. Not surprising for this is what happens when one is a man having led a bloody movement of insurrection for his people. Come October 22 and it could mean so many things to different people. To some it will be hailed as the day that the rebel leader is able to visit his birthplace after years of waging a bush war against India while to others it could be a case of an indigenous son of the soil returning home in the winter of his life. And when one talks about indigeneity, The Sangai Express still remembers his proclamation during a one to one meeting at Camp Hebron some time in 2005 that it is only the Nagas and the Meiteis who are indigenous to Manipur. For a place which has been ravaged by a state of conflict for more than two years, understanding the nuances of the term indigenous has become important and very crucial.
It is against this reality that Th Muivah is scheduled to visit his native village on October 22. Already in the winter of his life, it is only right that the rebel leader who has spent the better part of his life in the jungles, is given the welcome he deserves at his birthplace. The need for a final pact, the process for which started back in 1997, will surely hang heavy in the air as he lands at Somdal village and it is against this fact that Manipur will tune in to listen what he has got to say. And it stands that the message he brings will be awaited with hope and expectations by some, while for others it could be a case of trepidation. Not surprising for this is what happens when one is a man having led a bloody movement of insurrection for his people. Come October 22 and it could mean so many things to different people. To some it will be hailed as the day that the rebel leader is able to visit his birthplace after years of waging a bush war against India while to others it could be a case of an indigenous son of the soil returning home in the winter of his life. And when one talks about indigeneity, The Sangai Express still remembers his proclamation during a one to one meeting at Camp Hebron some time in 2005 that it is only the Nagas and the Meiteis who are indigenous to Manipur. For a place which has been ravaged by a state of conflict for more than two years, understanding the nuances of the term indigenous has become important and very crucial.