Manipur, A FAILED STATE? -ToI-16.10.11

A crippling blockade lasting 68 days choked Manipur last year. One is on right now — it’s in its 75th day even as we write about it. Can the state — wracked by insurgency and corruption, and agonized by the draconian AFSPA — ever return to normal? Jaideep Mazumdar reports from Imphal on the anxiety and alienation of a beautiful land

    It takes mere moments after one lands in Manipur to deduce that the state is well and truly withering away. This landlocked province in India’s troubled northeast, wracked by militancy for unending years, is like a gradually imploding minefield. Abject poverty, alarming unemployment, lack of development, massive corruption and absence of governance is pushing Manipur to the brink of being a ‘failed state’ — perhaps India’s first in the modern era. 
    More than 30 militant groups that indulge in massive extortion have links with venal politicians who, in collusion with bureaucrats, pocket the lion’s share of development funds while the common man, caught between insurgents and security forces engaged in counter-insurgency operations — and often accused by human rights groups of unspeakable excesses — is left battered and bruised. 
    The root cause of this mess lies in Manipur’s history, its geography and its demography. It was once a prosperous kingdom; the royal chronicle, or ‘Cheitharol Kumpaba’, lists the kingdom’s 74 rulers from 33 AD to 1891 when the British defeated Maharaja Kulachandra and appointed a political agent to rule while allowing the maharaja to remain a titular head. Departing in 1947, the British handed over reins of the state to the then king, Maharaja Bodhachandra, who, Manipuris believe, was forced by India to sign a merger agreement in September 1949. 
    Manipur became part of India on October 15 that year. This ‘forced merger’ still rankles many in Manipur and October 15 has been observed as ‘Black Day’ since the birth of militancy here more than three decades ago. Also, postmerger, the status of this erstwhile kingdom was reduced to that of a ‘Part C’ state ruled by a ‘chief commissioner’. Only after decades of peaceful demand for full statehood did Manipur become a state in 1972. This perceived ‘insult’ riles Manipuris even today. 
    The kings and the ruling class were all Meiteis (Manipur’s dominant community) who inhabited the vast and fertile Imphal Valley that has always remained the state’s administrative and social hub. The valley, which is just 10% of the state’s total landmass but home to nearly 60% of its population, is surrounded by hills that are populated by as many as 35 tribes and sub-tribes, prominent among them being the Nagas and the Kukis who were all subjects of the powerful Meitei kings. 
    The tribes, particularly the Nagas, hold a deep-seated grouse against the Meiteis, accusing the latter of treating them as lowly subjects and neglecting the hills’ development. This grievance has been leveraged by the Naga rebel group (NSCN) led by Isak Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah (who hails from Manipur’s Ukhrul district) to further their demand for integration of the Naga-inhabited hills of Manipur into a greater Nagaland or ‘Nagalim’ comprising present-day Nagaland, chunks of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and even Myanmar. 
    To make the hill districts their exclusive domain, the Nagas carried out a pogrom against Kukis in the early 1990s, killing 900 of them, razing 35 villages and displacing thousands. The Kukis, and other smaller tribes like the Paites, Vaipeis, Hmars and Zeliangs, are still fighting Nagas’ attempts to brand them as ‘tenants’ in the hills. They have their own insurgent outfits whose primary activity today is extortion. The Nagas’ fight against the Meiteis frequently assumes the form of prolonged blockades on highways that snake through the Naga-inhabited hills before reaching the Imphal Valley. The Meiteis, naturally, resent this and the ethnic divide only deepens. 
    Add to this the widespread corruption, poor governance, poverty, a high literacy rate coupled with unemployment (estimated at 25%), a flourishing parallel economy, drug and arms trafficking, and it is easy to see why Manipur is a cauldron of conflicts. “This is a very difficult state to govern,” government spokesman and irrigation minister N Biren Singh tells Sunday Times. Former chief minister Radhabinod Koijam agrees. “This is a complex state, but matters have been made worse by New Delhi’s attitude. Endemic corruption, poverty and acute unemployment have given rise to a deep sense of frustration among the people.” 
    The state’s per capita income is 
about half the national average and with barely any revenue of its own, it depends wholly on the Centre for funds. “Construction is the biggest sector of Manipur’s economy and that is not a healthy sign because contractors have emerged as the most powerful economic and political class in the state,” says Amar Yumnam, who teaches economics at Manipur University. “With no industry and private enterprise, everyone is dependant on the government for jobs. Failure to get jobs leads to frustration and the young then take to drugs or join a militant outfit,” adds L Sadanand Singh, former principal of Imphal College. 
    The poor state of infrastructure in even Imphal, the capital, is cited by many as a failure of governance. “There is no water supply, and we get power for four hours a day. Roads are in a mess, as is public education and healthcare. Public money is shamelessly swindled by politicians and officials, while central schemes are shown as implemented only on paper. People do not protest because they don’t expect the government to act and also because they’re scared of the militants who get a share of the loot,” says prominent lawyer Rakesh Meihoubam. 
    The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which Irom Sharmila has been fasting against for more than a decade, is another sore point. “This Act is used as a cover by security forces to violate human rights,” Prof Lokendra Arambam, who taught history and theatre at JNU says. Most Manipuris are against this Act, but all want the central security forces, including the Army, to stay. They also admit that cases of human rights violations by central security forces have gone down. The Army, on its part, concedes that excesses may have been committed in the past, but is vigilant against any violation now. 
    “The AFSPA provides us an enabling environment to tackle militancy with vigour. It is not a shield against wrongdoing. We cannot engage in counter-insurgency operations without this Act,” Maj-Gen Binoy Poonnen, the GOC of 57 Mountain Division headquartered near Imphal, told Sunday Times. Top police officers say the shrill campaign for repeal of the Act is being orchestrated by some militant groups who stand to gain if the Army withdraws from Manipur. “The situation will spin out of control then,” warns an IGP-ranked officer who did not want to be named. 
    Voices of gloom are many. “Conditions in Manipur are deteriorating and I see things getting worse,” says Nobokishore Urikhimbam, secretary of United NGO Mission Manipur, a network of about 100 NGOs. Yumnam talks about a “total disconnect” between the government and the people. “Everyone wants to get out of Manipur. There is a brain and capital drain from this state,” says Koijam as senior lawyer Khaidem Mani adds that “Manipuris have stopped expecting anything from the state because the state is dead.” 
HOME TRUTHS

The blockade has created an artificial famine. It is inhuman and undemocratic. If this volatile situation continues, there is a danger of flareups between ethnic groups. There has to be other democratic ways to press one’s demands rather than cut off supply lines to thousands of people. This is not even done in war time 
Kishorchandra Wangkhem 
BPO EXECUTIVE IN DELHI

It is the government’s duty to ensure that people do not starve. If it lacks the will or security resources or simply the guts to bring food, fuel and drugs to the people, isn’t it high time it declared it can’t do so? The situation needs to be handled carefully with utmost urgency by the Centre 
Dr Sushil Singh Loitongbam 
AIIMS, DELHI

Manipur has been insurgency-ridden for as long as I can remember. The youth have been constantly exposed to a gun culture which has misled them to believe that possession of arms brings power and respect. Economic development, employment opportunities and quality education have been seriously hampered, affecting people’s right to live freely and peacefully 
Cindy Kim Vualnam 
ST STEPHEN’S COLLEGE, DELHI

FACTFILE 
Statehood | 1972 Area | 22,327 sq km Population | 27,21,756 Literacy | 79.85% Main ethnic groups | Meitei, Kuki, Pangal, Paite, Naga, Vaipei, Hmar 
Lok Sabha seats | 2 Per capita | Rs 21,062 (2007-08)