The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : POVERTY OF APPROACH

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Wednesday, Sep 08, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

POVERTY OF APPROACH

BY NO STRETCH of the imagination can the Centre have been pleased with the results of Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil's first foray into Manipur last weekend. If ever there was a textbook case of `too little, too late', it was the sight of the Minister travelling to Imphal, nearly two months after the arrest, probable sexual molestation and rape of Thangjam Manorama Devi by personnel of the Assam Rifles, with nothing in his pocket other than the usual platitudes about being determined to punish the guilty soldiers. His other promise of getting the Assam Rifles to vacate Imphal's historic Kangla Fort will be believed only when it happens (since a Congress-led government, under Narasimha Rao, has already once played a cruel hoax on them in this regard). In any case, the movement in Manipur has by now taken on a dimension that brooks no appeasement through symbolic steps. By all accounts, Mr. Patil's meeting with representatives of the Apunba Lup — the 32 organisations spearheading the campaign for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA — did not go well. The meeting was delayed because of the arrest of one of the student leaders. And the fact that the Minister's visit was more in the nature of a side trip — his main reason for being in the region was a meeting of North-East Chief Ministers in Shillong — only served to strengthen the impression that the United Progressive Alliance Government is not serious about coming to grips with the ongoing agitation in the State.

It is regrettable that the Manipur Government of Okram Ibobi Singh has chosen to invoke a draconian law like the National Security Act (NSA) to arrest and imprison so many leaders of the Lup. One can only surmise that this irrational approach has the full backing of the Centre, which believes the situation can be controlled by the simple expedient of imprisoning the so-called ringleaders of the movement against AFSPA. The fact is, however, that the movement is truly decentralised and is unlikely to be weakened through such measures. The use of the NSA also further chips away at the already morally feeble argument of the Centre that a tough law like AFSPA cannot be repealed so long as there remain in Manipur forces that believe in conducting politics through violence. The manner in which the Lup is being targeted suggests those who eschew violence are not spared either. This approach of the Central and State Governments — of driving the overground underground — will only complicate matters in the long run.

Is there, even at this late stage, a face-saving route out of the impasse for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh? There is. Let him send to Manipur a high-level delegation of experts, including the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission and a few members of the National Advisory Council, to meet with the Lup and all parties concerned and listen to what they have to say about the AFSPA. Task the committee with making a concrete set of recommendations within a time-frame of a month and if the committee says the Act must be modified or scrapped, so be it. It is true the Supreme Court in 1997 upheld the constitutionality of the Act but it also stipulated a list of dos and don'ts that are being honoured by the security forces only in the breach. Above all, excessive reliance on statutes of this kind only perpetuates the culture of violence in the region and postpones the search for political solutions. The crisis in Manipur has dragged on long enough and the more the Centre keeps its head in the sand, the more intransigent its opponents will become.

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