The State is seceding its sense of space and responsibility towards borderlands, isolated regions far from New Delhi, ignored and treated with negligence. It has happened before, and is happening again. Ladakh saw India vacate space and now Manipur sees a similar phenomenon, albeit in dramatically different circumstances.
The net result is that the authority of the state doesn’t exist when it needs to be applied, and where it is needed. Ladakhi shepherds suffer on account of this quitting posture and the safety of the people of Manipur suffers on account of the state not willing to impose its supremacy.
Borderlands are treated with a disregard that, if such neglect happened anywhere else, would have created a national storm. There is a storm already underway though, but it remains localised, churning and spewing a virulence that is pervasive and persistent. Since the storm is situated so far from New Delhi, national responses do not convey a sense of answerability. However, the storm continues to grow, accumulating more energy than the current attitudes can handle. If the situation is not handled with utmost wisdom, India is bound to face colossal mistakes in the sensitive region.
Ladakh now has buffer zones separating the Indian and Chinese troops. The buffer zones are, of course, well within Indian territory and, hence, New Delhi ends up conceding ever more territory to an expansionist China. But what defies logic is the creation of buffer zones within Manipur, separating Indian nationals from fellow citizens. Such is the weakness of the state that it can’t enforce its writ, yet resorts to creating even more artificial barriers between people.
Rule of law and delivery of justice is truest testament to the presence of the State, but both are absent from duty in Manipur.
Buffer zones between people, within a state or province, and within the country is tantamount to division of society. When armed police or military forces of the State are responsible for enforcing the physical separation of its citizenry, the government clearly lacks the will, or belief, in the primacy of law. Once a society is physically divided, emotional and psychological severance follows. Getting it back onto the commons, classrooms or school grounds, and football fields, is a tall task. Stature of the leadership required may not match the heights required. Once that opportunity is lost Bantustans are then just around the corner.
Also read: Manipur is burning because of North Block’s legendary ignorance of the Northeast
Losing sense of geography
Closer to the national capital, and the cynosure of international eyes, Kashmir Valley garners disproportionate national security focus than its current situation warrants. Even as Pakistan recites its lines repeated over decades, its impact on the Valley has decreased dramatically. But since most of Indian policy making is largely unifocal keeping the issue of Pakistan on the boil makes for an effective domestic brew. So despite the relatively unchanged number of troops deployed there over the decades, the number of active militants is now at a historical low.
Compare those figures with Manipur and neglect becomes outrageous. The figures for weapons that were declared stolen or seized by mobs in Manipur is more than a hundred times the number of militants in Jammu and Kashmir.
Despite that, the troops deployed for enforcing the writ of the State in Manipur pales in comparison to the figures for Jammu and Kashmir. The extraordinary number in the northern state is disproportionate to the threats emanating from the Valley or the surrounding districts. But Manipur, on the other hand, is a far bigger crisis, and has to make do with a minuscule figure in comparison. It is also a regional crisis.
When the leadership has forfeited its knowledge of geography of the borderlands, it can’t accept the socio-political peculiarities prevailing there. Borderlands are more than spaces on a map separated by lines that divide geography. But the facts on ground are indivisible, even if the fullest extent of their importance is lost on Raisina Hill. Even as India confronts an economically stressed Pakistan on its western borders, and an expansionist China to its north, opportunities for trade are limited to the southern seas or the eastern land border. Geography has always influenced trade and commerce, and will continue to do so.
India’s most important gateway to the East is Moreh, Manipur. Asian Highway 1 enters India at Moreh from Tamu via Mandalay in Myanmar. AH1 starts in Tokyo and goes all the way to Turkey, truly integrating the continent. India can’t grow economically if it is not trading, and given that the future of international progress is the East, securing trade routes is critical. Manipur is irreplaceable in that sense. It sits astride the most important highway in Asia. It is also irreplaceable for its disproportionate contribution to India’s sporting successes. New Delhi, though, may have a preference for other games.
Manvendra Singh is a Congress leader, Editor-in-Chief of Defence & Security Alert and Chairman, Soldier Welfare Advisory Committee, Rajasthan. He tweets @ManvendraJasol. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)