The 'Manipur mess': Lessons of 1975 and a Bird's eye view

 Home Minister Pant in 1960s opted 'forget and forgive' policy with Naga rebels

New Delhi 

"Today the relations between the government (Nagaland) on the one hand and the commanders of the security forces on the other are not what they should be and because of that we are losing ground to the underground". 

These words are from the book 'In Jail' penned by noted columnist Kuldip Nayar. One can copy paste these easily today and simply change the name of the state to Manipur.

Nagaland Page

Now, on the situation in Manipur, Home Minister Amit Shah has convened an all-party meeting.

It is nobody's case to suggest that Shah will be keen to court the opposition parties. Since 2014,  consensus  building has not been a forte for the BJP-led regime. And both sides are to be blamed.  

"Manipur has been burning since 50 days, but the Prime Minister remained silent. An all-party meeting was called when the Prime Minister himself is not in the country! Clearly, this meeting is not important for the Prime Minister,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted about June 24 meet.

The book 'In Jail' deals with Emergency days in 1975. But some of these words 
can be easily applicable to both the states of Manipur and Nagaland in contemporary settings. 

Incidentally, Shah's all-party meeting on June 24 comes hours before all BJP leaders led by PM Modi will jump into the whirlpool of social media and TV-bytes blasting Congress for the Emergency. 

On the other side, Kuldip Nayar also had referred to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi meeting her Burmese counterpart (now Myanmar) and subsequently Indian forces started "Chasing the underground Nagas  right into Burmese territory".  

Maybe Manipur finds itself in the same situation as things were in Nagaland in 1975. In similar vein, one can also say the government then was more concerned about Peking (Beijing) -- that "insisted on fishing in the troubled waters".

Today in 2023,  China will be at least happy to see Indian forces 'engaged' in Manipur 'helplessly' -- unable to do anything substantial without AFSPA.

 In course of our discussions in 2004, Nayar had told me, "Beijing believed Vietnam had proved that mass resistance can even defeat a mighty nation (US) and so such a thing was possible with Nagas". But the Chinese intent could not make much headway.  China tried with almost all other rebel groups in the north east and yet failed.

"One reason was that moderates among Nagas did not want any truck with Beijing (Peking) because as devoted Christians they did not want to get engaged with a communist dispensation in China," says one source. This anti-communism brand of realism also applies to other Christian-dominated states.

Some of these things have stuck even today. 

Among possible reflex reactions to the deteriorating law and order situation in Manipur, experts nurtured a thought process "you-kill-mine and I kill yours". This was similar to the tale of 1950s and 1960s. 

But the then Home Minister Govind Ballabh Pant did not approve any such harsh measure and instead opted for the policy of 'forget and forgive'. At a later stage, the centre enlisted the support of Michael Scot and even Jaiprakash Narayan (JP) and white flag was hung for days over Kudarma village. Manipur today awaits such 'white flags'. 

The opposition leaders who will participate in the June 24 meeting could have a clear intention--

Let's listen to them (Shah and his team), but we hope the BJP fails.

The government side is expected to list out some of the follies of Congress era such as poppy cultivation

and nexus of ultras with state politicians. Congress also allegedly pursued an appeasement formula with almost

all groups and generally thrived with its adhocism.

Jawahar Nehru's words about Assam and the region in 1962 still haunt the people here. 

The BJP leaders had earlier alleged that through 2018 the Congress and its friends tried to use 

'NRC as a political issue'. In 2020, when the CAA really came, the debate and protests were orchestrated

on a faulty ground that it was anti-Muslim. 

In 2021, one Arunachal Pradesh BJP leader had said, "If the Congress party took a harder stand on China, 

the people of Arunachal Pradesh would habe slept more peacefully". 

Of course, the Congress party keeps taking credit for the Mizo Accord but the story is 'half-told'.

In less than two years of the Accord, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi dismissed and allegedly 

humiliated Laldenga (former rebel leader and ex-Chief Minister) so that the state could have a Congress 

government. The BJP did its part rather unceremoniously in Arunachal Pradesh in 2016 and 2017.

Will they talk about the Naga peace parleys -- stalled for the last four years without any substantial reason and fhyme ?

 

Where is the meeting point?

Whatever will be the outcome and substance of June 24 all-party meet;  the policy makers will do well to

keep their sights riveted to the eye of the moving fish to shoot the arrow at.

 

ends