Political Diary

New Delhi, 6 June 2015

Quarantined North-East

WAGES  OF  NEGLECT

By Poonam I Kaushish

Excerpt from an SMS reads: “Save State, save identity. Let us take oath, to wipe out the Army.  Leave immediately or face unspecified action.” Welcome to the Gen Next version of militancy. Clearly, the chickens have come home to roost in distant Manipur last week. Tragically, exposing the Centre’s tenuous links with the North-East!

True to style, the Government pressed the panic button post the killing of 20 soldiers and a dozen injured in a clinically executed militant ambush in Manipur's Chandel district, the deadliest blow to the Army since 1982, and has asked the NIA to investigate the attack. The State Government washes its hands by dubbing it an “intelligence failure.” Specially, as it comes in the wake of two major ambushes on the army and the Assam Rifles in neighbouring Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

The Army has launched a massive operation along the Manipur-Myanmar border to smoke out the re-emerging threat from insurgent groups like the People's Liberation Army (PLA), KYKL (Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup), KCP (Kangleipak Communist Party) and the Khaplang National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) operating in Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal.

Been there and heard it all before. But the moot point: Does it take a chilling ambush to rudely make the security establishment realize it is sitting on a tinder box in the distant and neglected north-east? Should the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) be withdrawn from Manipur where it has created social disharmonies affecting women and students? Can the Centre afford to take the risk of doing so?

What have the Union and the State Government done so far, are doing and will do to change the political landscape? Must gunshots be fired and bombs exploded for New Delhi to take notice of the region? How much more blood must be spilled before the Centre takes the required action on the ground? Knee-jerk reactions might attract headlines but can they really solve the problem?

All know the root cause of the problem is the indefinite continuation of AFSPA. The ongoing hunger strike by Chanu Sharmila since 2000 demanding its repeal underlines the deep resentment against security forces who are often accused of extortion, arrests, torture and killing in cold blood.

Yet revoking AFSPA doesn’t seem to be an option as it is “akin to fighting insurgency with one’s hands tied. By depriving troops of immunity offered by AFSPA would sap their morale and impair operations,” asserted a security expert. Remember, in 2004 AFSPA was lifted in Manipur but instead of reducing violence aggravated it, resulting in its re-imposition.

Bluntly, all seem clueless wherein every time a crisis looms, fire- fighting measures and quick-fix solutions are put into force without either understanding the issues involved or having a comprehensive plan to resolve it. Myopic in its introspection, the Centre unfortunately ends up mostly reacting, instead of looking ahead and acting. Crisis over the State is forgotten till another crisis erupts. Curing the symptoms not the disease.

On three counts. One, the powers-that-be have to acknowledge that a grave problem exists before they can decide on the cure. Namely, alienation, deep prejudices, feeling of injustice, economic neglect, identity management, ethnic violence, local-immigrants tensions et al.

Two, various insurgent groups force locals to pay extortion money repeatedly, leading to massive unemployment. Consequently, many go underground and get remunerative “jobs” in any of the nearly 40 insurgent groups operating in the States. Topped by gross political failure.

Recall 2006. In a shocking revelation, the then Army Chief Gen JJ Singh complained to then Home Minister Shivraj Patil that nearly six Manipur Ministers were hand in glove with the militants from NCN(K), PLA et al. Not only that. The Chief Minister Okaram Ibobi too had allegedly paid Rs 1 crore extortion money to militant outfits. Endorsed by a Nagaland Governor who told me that he was asked to cough up Rs one crore extortion money!

Plainly, with this scale of militant appeasement the North-East is up for grabs to the highest bidder. So, if politicians and militants are hand in glove, where does one go from here?

“We are sitting on top of a volcano which can erupt anytime. We have evidence of Central funds disbursed to the State Government for fighting militancy and development of the region being funneled to these militant outfits for buying weapons and ammunition. We are aware that about fifty per cent of the doles go to line the insurgents’ pockets,” stated an intelligence official.

Trails of new extortion rackets running into hundreds of crores by insurgents and recovery of huge cash stockpiles being used to recruit fresh cadre and for procuring new advanced weapons have added dangerous portends to the problem.

Not only that. For the first time heavier weapons like AK-56 assault rifles, imported hand grenades, large quantities of RDX and other explosives have been recovered. Chinese weapons and even some US arms are finding their way to these cadres through Bangladesh and Myanmar. Over 2500 new recruits are being trained in Arunachal.

Pertinently, the NSCN-K which recently walked out of a 15-year old ceasefire agreement with the Centre has since taken a lead in uniting disparate insurgent groups including Assam’s ULFA, Kamatapur Liberation Organization, NDFB (Songbijit) and the Manipur-based outfits involved in the ambush under a new name --- the United Nationalist Liberation Front of West South-East Asia. 

Worse, bases, sanctuaries and madrasas are mushrooming for trans-border support for secessionist and separatist insurgency movements. In fact, according to RAW sources, the ISI has launched “Operation PINCODE” to bring the entire North-East under Islamic rule.

Lack of financial discipline has added to the people’s woes. There is no income tax for the tribals in the region. Offices do not keep cash books. And about 90 per cent of the money for development makes its way to the powers that-be. According to a former Governor, “the Centre has as much vested interest in the misuse of funds as the North-East politicians. The money is not used for development.

Tragically, the Centre’s relationship with the region, unlike Kashmir where it is emotionally involved, has been an on-off affair: “Like two people locked in a bad marriage” as a former Union Home Secretary said. “Even if one intends to make things better, it actually makes them quite a bit worse.”

What next? Is the Government capable of defusing this power keg? Is it willing to acknowledge without any sugar-coating that a grave problem exists before it can decide on the cure? That, the situation is worse than Kashmir as local sentiments run high.

New Delhi needs a reality check. The time has come for the Centre and States to think out-of-the-box. Prolonged inaction has already proved too costly. Self-serving decisions of militant appeasement will not do. Ill-advised measures only create discords.

The need of the hour is to understand the seriousness, deal assertively with the issues and set up time-bound measures once and for all. Development, employment and infrastructure hold the success key. No longer can New Delhi afford to neglect the North- East. The wages are too grave to fritter away. ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)