The three-day DGP’s conference held in New Delhi has seen some plain speaking by Home Minister P Chidambaram. He has minced no words in saying that armed insurrection will not be entertained within the Indian State. This does not need further amplification. Groups like the NSCN (IM) and K and a plethora of other gun-totting mercenaries should now get the message loud and clear. Anyone having even the faintest notion of trying to dismember the nation-state, their ‘unique’ histories notwithstanding, stands in grave danger of being treated as enemies. And the Indian State is neither very forgiving nor tolerant of enemies.
However, the Home Minister has also given ample scope for groups to bring their grouses to the negotiating table since there is nothing under the sun that cannot be negotiated without the booming of guns in the background. Militant groups from the North East should get some straight messages from the new Home Minister. Never before has the Home Ministry made as much news and seen to be taking the bull by the horns as is happening today. Even as Finance Minister, P Chidambaram was never as feted as he is today. He is delivering and it is gratifying to note that our jungle warriors have abandoned their bravado and some have already surrendered their arms, to walk the straight and narrow paths of common citizens.
The three day conference in New Delhi is addressing terrorism, extremism and the North East conflicts which perhaps overlap both categories and spills over into more domains. For how do you define the conflicts in Manipur? That State and its people are living in a confused, chaotic scenario of street protests every single day even while the security forces are unrelenting in their attempt to finish off the extremism/insurgency/terrorism/extortionism and what have you in the State of Manipur. While citizens are grappling with State-high-handedness after Sanjit Singh, a reformed militant was brutally shot at by the Manipur commandos, the militants are having a field day because they are left to their devices each time the uniformed personnel are on the back foot.
It is a peculiar situation that civil society has never been vehement when militants have bumped off chosen targets. Perhaps it is due to fear of reprisal. Politicians and security forces are soft targets that can be held to ridicule and be publicly reprimanded because they are easily identified. But why are there no spy cameras to photograph militants while on their killing spree? Are we missing something here in our bravura to hail the secret camera person? It takes an uncanny accuracy to be at the scene of the crime to record what is defined as ‘State-sponsored terrorism’. Perhaps there is more here than meets the eye. Granted that we have the best mobile telephony gadgets and spy-cams but to be in the right place at the right time is nothing short of a million dollar breakthrough.
But like it or not, this very incident has catapulted the North East yet again into the national limelight. A Delhi-based television channel did a thirty minutes feature on the horrors of Manipur and how people there live life on the edge. Those who constantly moan that the North East is nearly always falling off the Indian map will be happy that they are now in the news, albeit for the wrong reasons. That even the students of journalism should be fed with this clichéd gripe that the national media does not give enough space to North East news. For goodness sake why is it so important to be seen on ‘national’ television or ‘newsprint’ unless we suffer some sort of congenital orphan syndrome. Does it affect us when we see farmers in Andhra committing suicide? Don’t we just discuss and forget about the issue? And don’t our power packers in Delhi do the same thing? So why bother about ‘national’ media anyway? Like somebody has rightly remarked there is not such thing as a national media. NDTV or CNN-IBN are Delhi based channels and very metro-centric in their discussion of important issues. We should ask ourselves why we watch them and increase their TRP ratings?
So much for national attention! Let me now come to the point with which I started this article. The North East now needs major infrastructural investments and these will only come in a climate of political stability and economic viability. No one is going to spend his hard earned money here to pay off militant groups. Those who have done so have recovered the profits from us the citizens. It is time now for those who have a stake in development – human, physical, economic, ecological and political to put their heads together and find out means to strengthen the State mechanism that is fighting terror, instead of constantly bailing out hard core militants with our misplaced sympathies and skewed human rights slogans.
Two or three or five decades of violence have taught us enough lessons in adversity for us to want to continue with this lose-lose phenomenon and to look at win-win scenarios. P Chidambaram has hit the nail on the head when he calls the problem by its name. We have fooled ourselves by supporting ‘our ULFA boys’ our ‘Naga National Workers’ our ‘Khasi Freedom Fighters’ and the thirty odd extremist groups in Manipur. In fact I think we have conceded defeat by leaving our living spaces and looking for safe spaces to live in, instead of roughing it out in those theatres of violence. Sadly, after having left our hearths and homes we then become the most vociferous proponents of human rights. This is pure and simple hypocrisy. Those who want to change the world cannot live in heaven. They have to be in the world and with the world. Sadly, Delhi has become the safe haven for all human rights activists of the North East.
We have to get real if we want to get somewhere. The time to begin is now. Patricia Mukhim
The three-day DGP’s conference held in New Delhi has seen some plain speaking by Home Minister P Chidambaram. He has minced no words in saying that armed insurrection will not be entertained within the Indian State. This does not need further amplification. Groups like the NSCN (IM) and K and a plethora of other gun-totting mercenaries should now get the message loud and clear. Anyone having even the faintest notion of trying to dismember the nation-state, their ‘unique’ histories notwithstanding, stands in grave danger of being treated as enemies. And the Indian State is neither very forgiving nor tolerant of enemies.
However, the Home Minister has also given ample scope for groups to bring their grouses to the negotiating table since there is nothing under the sun that cannot be negotiated without the booming of guns in the background. Militant groups from the North East should get some straight messages from the new Home Minister. Never before has the Home Ministry made as much news and seen to be taking the bull by the horns as is happening today. Even as Finance Minister, P Chidambaram was never as feted as he is today. He is delivering and it is gratifying to note that our jungle warriors have abandoned their bravado and some have already surrendered their arms, to walk the straight and narrow paths of common citizens.
The three day conference in New Delhi is addressing terrorism, extremism and the North East conflicts which perhaps overlap both categories and spills over into more domains. For how do you define the conflicts in Manipur? That State and its people are living in a confused, chaotic scenario of street protests every single day even while the security forces are unrelenting in their attempt to finish off the extremism/insurgency/terrorism/extortionism and what have you in the State of Manipur. While citizens are grappling with State-high-handedness after Sanjit Singh, a reformed militant was brutally shot at by the Manipur commandos, the militants are having a field day because they are left to their devices each time the uniformed personnel are on the back foot.
It is a peculiar situation that civil society has never been vehement when militants have bumped off chosen targets. Perhaps it is due to fear of reprisal. Politicians and security forces are soft targets that can be held to ridicule and be publicly reprimanded because they are easily identified. But why are there no spy cameras to photograph militants while on their killing spree? Are we missing something here in our bravura to hail the secret camera person? It takes an uncanny accuracy to be at the scene of the crime to record what is defined as ‘State-sponsored terrorism’. Perhaps there is more here than meets the eye. Granted that we have the best mobile telephony gadgets and spy-cams but to be in the right place at the right time is nothing short of a million dollar breakthrough.
But like it or not, this very incident has catapulted the North East yet again into the national limelight. A Delhi-based television channel did a thirty minutes feature on the horrors of Manipur and how people there live life on the edge. Those who constantly moan that the North East is nearly always falling off the Indian map will be happy that they are now in the news, albeit for the wrong reasons. That even the students of journalism should be fed with this clichéd gripe that the national media does not give enough space to North East news. For goodness sake why is it so important to be seen on ‘national’ television or ‘newsprint’ unless we suffer some sort of congenital orphan syndrome. Does it affect us when we see farmers in Andhra committing suicide? Don’t we just discuss and forget about the issue? And don’t our power packers in Delhi do the same thing? So why bother about ‘national’ media anyway? Like somebody has rightly remarked there is not such thing as a national media. NDTV or CNN-IBN are Delhi based channels and very metro-centric in their discussion of important issues. We should ask ourselves why we watch them and increase their TRP ratings?
So much for national attention! Let me now come to the point with which I started this article. The North East now needs major infrastructural investments and these will only come in a climate of political stability and economic viability. No one is going to spend his hard earned money here to pay off militant groups. Those who have done so have recovered the profits from us the citizens. It is time now for those who have a stake in development – human, physical, economic, ecological and political to put their heads together and find out means to strengthen the State mechanism that is fighting terror, instead of constantly bailing out hard core militants with our misplaced sympathies and skewed human rights slogans.
Two or three or five decades of violence have taught us enough lessons in adversity for us to want to continue with this lose-lose phenomenon and to look at win-win scenarios. P Chidambaram has hit the nail on the head when he calls the problem by its name. We have fooled ourselves by supporting ‘our ULFA boys’ our ‘Naga National Workers’ our ‘Khasi Freedom Fighters’ and the thirty odd extremist groups in Manipur. In fact I think we have conceded defeat by leaving our living spaces and looking for safe spaces to live in, instead of roughing it out in those theatres of violence. Sadly, after having left our hearths and homes we then become the most vociferous proponents of human rights. This is pure and simple hypocrisy. Those who want to change the world cannot live in heaven. They have to be in the world and with the world. Sadly, Delhi has become the safe haven for all human rights activists of the North East.
We have to get real if we want to get somewhere. The time to begin is now.
