The Hindu Business Line : Anguish of an alienated people

For long it has been the hotbed of insurgency fuelled by a complex web of reasons, not the least of which is a sense of discrimination among the Meitis of Imphal valley against the Nagas of the hill districts. For long, the former have felt that New Delhi has given many concessions to the Naga rebels to buy peace.

If the former Hurriyat Conference Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, could ask of the former Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, that if he could talk to the Naga leaders why not the Hurriyat leaders of Kashmir, then the resentment felt by the Meitis of Manipur can be imagined.

But just now the people of Manipur are incensed over the alleged rape, torture and killing of 32-year-old Manorama Devi by Assam Rifles jawans who had picked her up for questioning. The official explanation is that she was a militant and was killed while trying to escape from custody.

As in Kashmir, Manipur has had a long and troubled history of custodial deaths. But Manorama's death resulted in the unprecedented and shocking protest by a dozen elderly and respectable women of Imphal who marched naked to the Assam Rifles base in the State capital. They held placards that read "Indian army rape us" and "Indian army take our flesh", and shouted such slogans as "Come and rape us all".

This protest, organised at the initiative of 75-year-old Thockchom Ramani, secretary of the women's Social Reformation and Development Samaj, sent shock waves across the country. Under fire once again is the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) of 1958, in force in Manipur, which has been declared a "disturbed area". This Act gives sweeping powers to the Army to arrest suspects without warrant.

Following the women's dramatic protest, the entire State was up in arms and curfew had to be imposed. These days, Imphal is a picture of women's groups on hunger strike and student protests, and barricaded streetspatrolled by steel helmeted policemen.

The day after the naked women's protest, nearly 100 women were wounded in a police crackdown in Imphal. "They were caned, teargassed and fired upon with rubber bullets, but no one retreated. Some of the injured women later underwent surgery for removal of the pellets embedded in their bodies," reported The Telegraph on July 16.

The protests are gathering momentum for the repeal of the AFSPA and since this can be done only by the Centre, the Opposition parties in Manipur, with the support of some MLAs of the Congress-led Ibobi Singh Government, have thought of an ingenious way out. They say that while the State Assembly cannot repeal this Act, it is within its powers to enact a legislation to rid Manipur of its "Disturbed Area' status.

The Manipur Chief Minister is shunting between Delhi and Imphal, and lobbying with the UFA Government for the repeal of the AFSPA which, however, seems quite unlikely. The angry voices coming out of the State are reminiscent of the protests in mid-2001, when Manipur went up in flames.

The provocation then was the agreement signed by the NDA Government with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac Muivah) to extend the cease-fire by another year without territorial restrictions.

This outraged the Manipuris in the valley, who were already resentful of practices such as their being not allowed to buy land in the hill areas, whereas the tribals (Nagas) in the hills could acquire land in the valley.

Manipur's problems have a past of some 40 years, marked by trouble and insurgency. With no industrialisation worth the name, unemployment reigns supreme; agriculture and government jobs are the only two avenues for work. There are as many as 29 different groups and tribes in Manipur, the most prominent being the Meiteis, the Kukis and the Hmars, with each having its own sub- groups.

On a visit to Imphal in August 2002, this correspondent found the insurgents running a parallel regime that even collected `taxes' from the people. Different groups had their own networks and organisations and their tax collection mechanism was reputed to be more efficient and stringent than the Government's.

Each insurgent group gave `protection' to a section of the people for a payment of 10-20 per cent of their income. People willingly coughed up the money and receipts were issued by the insurgent groups, which called themselves `defence councils'.

The bulk of the money was collected from government servants, and one recalls a shopkeeper saying: "We'd rather pay the insurgents than pay income-tax because at least we are paying our own people."

That was a telling indication of the extent of alienation of ordinary Manipuris from the rest of India. Though not as bad as Kashmir, there is resentment that the rest of the country has little connection with the North-East States, particularly Manipur; the economic boom or the hyperactivity in the IT, telecom and other sectors has hardly touched these people.

And so Manipur continues to remain one of the most underdeveloped and poorest States; a place where jobs are hard to come by, where drug addiction is rampant, and insurgency all-pervasive. Drug addiction and the spread of HIV/AIDS through shared needles are huge problems in this State.

As Bunta Singh at the Manipur Network of Positive People (MNP+), had pointed out: "We are a salad of so many things; no economic growth, no basic infrastructure, no electricity, no telephone facilities; we in Manipur have nothing to fall back upon except government jobs. It is either a government job or nothing."

Many areas in Manipur are predominantly Christian and, thanks to missionaries, literacy and education levels are much higher here. But education and unemployment combine into a deadly cocktail; an educated man does not want to till the land. But, then, if you cannot find a job and enjoy the comforts that educated youngsters elsewhere enjoy, the frustration levels go up.

Because of its proximity to the Golden Triangle, drugs are freely available. Unemployed youngsters get drawn into peddling drugs and, if not already users, it is only a matter of time before they start experimenting and become addicts.

This is also a society where women work very hard, and in Imphal it is common to see women running petty ventures on the road or selling vegetables and fruits. Many of these women often have male member in the family affected by HIV/AIDS and some economic activity is essential.

But, sadly , the women are trapped into drug peddling by their male relatives in the belief that law enforcement agencies may be more lenient with women. Soon, they themselves get hooked on to drugs and end up with HIV. Poverty also compels many Manipuri women to become commercial sex workers, but this is the last, desperate option.

An NGO representative had explained that the women selling vegetables in the streets or the markets grew the vegetables themselves.

"They then carry them to the nearest market. In this society women are more resilient, hardworking and much more realistic than men in coming to terms with their lives. You'll find most women willing to work long hours just to earn Rs 5; they would not mind working for eight hours, or walking three kilometres carrying the vegetables on their heads, rather than sell themselves in the flesh trade."

In such a society, if an already harassed woman is targeted by those supposed to protect her, something breaks, as has happened now. New Delhi and the Army top brass must act, and act fast, to ensure that justice is done.

In the long term, of course, the feeling of alienation in States such as Manipur needs to be addressed. Uneven progress and ill-distributed wealth result in frustration and a sense of injustice and can cause volcanic eruptions, as the TDP regime discovered in Andhra Pradesh not so long ago.

(Response can be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)