Most Accords were either 'face-saving' or muscle-flexing
New Delhi
Can I play a party spoiler to Congress celebrations about Karnataka election results?
Our good friends in Nagaland Congress such as Kewephape Therie must be excited about the EVM working properly today.
"EVM in Karnataka BJP MLAs vehicle, if true, all BJP candidates should be declared disqualified," he wrote on Facebook on May 12 hours before the counting began.
In Nagaland many in the regional parties too are waiting in the wings to 'jump ship' in terms of loyalty. An 'unsigned' letter might have left for AICC headquarters as was the case in 2019 -- of course before elections itself.
Many in BJP might be telling their NDPP friends, "we never liked BJP you see; Congress could be handled very well".
One important regional party leader told me on Saturday: "The Modi factor is not working any more, this is the living testimony in the Karnataka election". This may be true or may not be so; but the excitement of the regionalist is worth appreciating.
Veteran Shurhozelie may not think anything about change in policy and politics; but what about Chingwang Konyak and his esteemed 'neo regional' NDPP friends? "We all belong to Congress toh" !!
But let us move over and talk a bit about Congress legacy vis-a-vis northeast India and the crisis the state of Manipur and the people of the state find themselves in. Will it be logical to blame Congress for its past mistakes when the BJP is in power both in Imphal and in Delhi today?
To analyse these issues objectively we have to try to study how Congress ruled over the north east right from the beginning, that is 1947 and especially since 1950-51 when India was declared as a Republic.
North East did not figure much in the Congress debate till the jungles started burning. Pt Nehru's remarks on people of Assam after the 1962 debacle is another testimony.
These left a far-reaching impact.
'New Delhi may not bother, but it fears violence'. This became the general understanding about the government(s) in Delhi throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Hence, starting with Nagas, Mizos and now even groups like Kukis --- while none is fairly satisfied with the manner the Government of India treats them, everyone believes that by violence and joining guerilla forces they can 'harm' India in their own 'native lands'. And thus also regain the respective 'rightful places and claims' of various tribal groups.
Needless to add, even non-tribal groups have been 'engrossed' into such thinking and we have rebellions and anti-India militancy like that of ULFA in Assam or various Meitei groups in Manipur.
This is the Congress legacy and the grand old party -- now seen as a savior of India's secularism - cannot run away from this.
How the Assam agitation of students was handled by the Indira Gandhi-Zail Singh duo is known to many -- even people of our generation born between 1965 and 1975. Moreover, in the 1970s, there was something called Shillong Accord.
The then Governor L P Singh had signed the Shillong Accord November 11, 1975 when
Opposition leaders were behind bars and Indira Gandhi (incidentally Bharat-Jodo man Rahul Gandhi's grand mom) had imposed Emergency.
This precipitated a split in the Naga underground movement and NSCN was born. Such a failed accord was that even today children born in the second decade of the 21st century can understand the bitter impact of the same.
Even the state of Manipur is touched indirectly as Tangkhuls and other Nagas in that state felt ignored and now continue to keep the conflict on.
Even other accords inked by Congress regimes in the past and even a few signed at later stages by other parties do not inspire confidence. I know of present Naga rebel leaders who are constantly making a point over the months now that 'New Delhi cannot be trusted'. This applies to BJP leaders and also to their predecessors in the Congress.
A common grouse is the Congress always kept the problems 'postponing' for another day. This became
synonymous with Indian bureaucracy and in more ways than one the Modi regime too is following
the script of Congress leaders only.
"The failures of pacts and signed documents like the Assam Accord and the Shillong Accord are largely due to misplaced goals and prioritization of issues. In many cases impossible targets have been promised just to buy temporary peace," says a key Government of India source handling these complex subjects.
Such promises were made in Assam Accord and with Nagaland too, 'unity' of Naga contiguous areas were mentioned in the 16 Point Agreement.
"Let things be underneath the water....It is all stinking and so let us not disturb the status quo. This was the approach". Status quo means -- pass your time and enjoy your wine while being sure that the problems are like festering wounds.
What we have in Manipur did not occur all of a sudden. The Meitei-Kuki conflicts or differences were underneath the carpet; but such strategies do not resolve the problem.
Some military officers who have served in the north east once told some of us at the Army War College, Mhow in Madhya Pradesh that -- most 'accords' in north east appear arenas of face-saving on one hand and muscle-flexing on the other.
These only seek to buy time without attending to common people's grievances.
This too is a Congress legacy.
Lastly, we may add here that the Manipur Merger Agreement of 1949 had created Revolutionary Government of Manipur (RGM).
In Assam, the 1993 pact with All Bodo Students Union led to the creation of Bodo Liberation Tigers.
The final point is the Congress never has the magic wand to bell the cat.
ends
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