THE fresh message from Manipur is clear: A sensible solution is possible only if militant groups and community organisations stop hostilities among them. The Government has achieved this goal to some extent when it signed with Kuki National Organisation (KNO) and the United People’s Front (UPF) ‘suspension of operations’ agreement that would now usher in the North-Eastern State a relief from violence whose reason few could specify. What was available by way of explanation of the continued violence was not more than just a description of what was happening. The Opposition, however, tried its best to extract a political mileage out of the Manipur situation and often tried to corner Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi for his so-called failure to control things.

 

Now, with the peace pact having been signed, the Manipur situation will start returning to normalcy -- which would deprive the Opposition of chance to harass the Government. The agreement will bring to Manipur reasonable benefits of peace in the State. The Kuki-Zo Council has already agreed to open for traffic the national highway that passes through the State. There also is an agreement about reduction and relocation of Designated Camps from vulnerable areas. This should be considered a good beginning for restoration of normalcy in Manipur that had been bogged down by communal violence thanks to the hostilities between the Kuki and the Meitei communities. Once the ethnic violence is brought under control, peace process could be pushed further.

 

The trouble in Manipur, however, was not purely and simply domestic. It has had international nuances as well, thanks to Manipur’s proximity to Myanmar through international border of several hundred kilometers. Incidents of militants crossing the border into India and create trouble. Those outfits also were reported to be getting some sly patronage from Indian political parties that had interest in fanning domestic trouble for whatever purpose. That was actually the reason why the Manipur trouble kept lingering for such a long time. The Opposition parties tried to extract full advantage of the Manipur situation by blaming Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi for everything that went wrong in the border-state. Such political action served no purpose and solved no problem. The trouble in Manipur continued to fester with no solution seemingly in sight. The Central Government, however, kept working silently to sort out things in Manipur with patience -- engaging different community groups in domestic diplomacy and slowly bringing them around to considering solutions that could be implemented only in conditions of peace.

 

The Centre also succeeded in weaning some of the leaders of the Meitei and Kuki communities from their own outfits as ambassadors of goodwill. This patient approach started making some difference -- due to which Manipur started getting calmer. In the past some time, the State did not see much violence, thanks to the Government’s patient building of accord among hostile segments. Speculations are in the air that the Prime Minister may visit Manipur in the next some time -- a good two--plus years after his last visit in 2023. This visit may prove to be a game-changer in Manipur since the common people in the State will get to know how the Prime Minister views the situation. If the Manipur situation gets tackled properly, the whole of North-East will get integrated with the rest of the country in a finer manner. In the past 10-11 years since the advent of Mr. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, the Centre has taken extra-special efforts to build better connect of the North-East region with the rest of the country and has created a pro-development environment there. With the Manipur tangle sorted out, things will get certainly better.