[Assam] Xenophobia in NE

[Jyotirmoy Sharma]

Now that "quit notices" have been issued to Non-manipuris to leave
Manipur by May31, how come human rights organisation, NGOs are all
silent on this open xenophobic dictate?
Will AASU take up the cause of Assamese people in Manipur? Why are the
Manipur based human rights organisation silent? Now that Nagaland and
Manipur are at loggerheads over Nagalim and Muivah's visit, it can be
well understood that NESO has no voice. It's various organisations
cannot have a common agenda ( Nagaland wants parts of Arunachal,
Manipur and Assam; Arunachal, Mizoram and Megahalaya wants part of
Assam; even within Assam, Bodos want parts of Assam for themselves ).
MZP calls "non-Mizo" bandhs to protest/threaten against criminal acts
commited by a non-Mizo ( mostly a non tribal ) against a brethren. KSU
has issued quit notices and have attacked Nepali people to protest
Assam's police actions in Langpih. Surely the Nepali people in
Shillong did not have anything to do with the shootings in the border.
Sure, this is xenophobia, racism and discrimination. The same NE
people complain of racism and discrimination in Delhi, Bangalore and
elsewhere. Can one have the best of both worlds?

An article in rediff on Manipur is worth reading
http://news.rediff.com/column/2010/may/17/delhi-sleeps-while-manipur-burns.htm
JS

Text below
Manipur is on fire today. Terrorist organisations demand secession
from India [ Images ], local tribal conflicts, and a total collapse of
the civil administration has turned the state into a virtual hell. Yet
Delhi [ Images ] does not seem to care, notes Tarun Vijay.

Manipur must be amongst the most beautiful states of India with green
hills, flowery valleys and vast clean water lakes mesmerising the
viewer and in many ways dwarfing Switzerland's [ Images ] over-stated
panorama.

The state is on fire today. Terrorist organisations demand secession
from India, local tribal conflicts and a total collapse of the civil
administration has turned this state into a virtual hell otherwise
famed for its Radha Krishna dance the world over and a stunningly
sharp martial arts said to be the predecessor of karate.

A few facts first.

1. Since January 16, 80,000 state government employees have been on a
'pen down' strike demanding implementation of the Sixth Pay
Commission's recommendations with retrospective effect. This has
paralysed the government machinery, but Chief Minister Ibobi Singh has
refused to talk to the striking employees.

2. A stifling blockade on National Highway-39 and a partial blockade
on NH-53 has caused an unbelievable scarcity of oil, food and
medicines. Buses and trucks are given 40 litres of petrol/diesel per
day through a self-imposed rationing system. Diesel and petrol are
being sold at exorbitant rates in the black market.

Bus fares have increased two to three times (the Imphal to Churachand
Pur bus fare has gone up to Rs 150 from Rs 40 earlier).

3. The only one major government hospital is not getting oxygen
cylinders, hence it has stopped operating upon patients. With a few
oxygen cylinders left, it has closed down the casualty department,
keeping the scantly available reserve for emergencies.

4. The Guwahati-Imphal air fare has suddenly gone up and people are
simply unable either to enter or leave Manipur by road.

5. Non-Manipuris have been served notices to quit the state by the
Peoples' Liberation Army, an outlawed separatist organisation with
Chinese contours; it has set May 31 as the deadline.

Thousands of labourers and workers have already left in panic; the
remaining traders and teachers are terrified with zero security
assurance either by the state government or by the Centre.

So this is the state of India where citizens are asked to leave like
the jihadis did to Kashmiri Hindus. People ask who owns Manipur. Why
don't the Delhiwallahs care for them?

If a small road was blocked for day in Haryana or Uttar Pradesh [
Images ], the media would have covered it immediately. But a month's
blockade of two arteries joining the state with the rest of India
hasn't attracted even a fraction of that attention. Why? Because
Haryana and UP are more important to South and North Block than
Manipur?

Roads are blocked cutting the state from the rest of India, hospitals
do not run, an administration is on strike for the last four months,
terrorists virtually rule the land and above that the Centre decided
to allow T Muivah, a leader of a separatist insurgent organisation,
the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, Issac-Muivah faction, to
visit his ancestral village in Manipur.

Muivah has been booked in several cases of murder and mayhem in
Manipur. On finding that the Union home ministry is proposing to send
him under Z-plus security cover in a government helicopter to the
state, Manipuris boiled in anger. Chief Minister Ibobi Singh, a
Congress leader, flatly refused to accept the central government's
unilateral decision.

Nevertheless, this move further aggravated the already tormented state
and all social and political organisations joined hands to condemn the
Centre's move, threatening dire consequences if Muivah was allowed to
visit the state. In protest clashes, three young men have been killed.

Muivah is demanding a Greater Nagaland, and his organisation's slogan
is 'Nagaland for Christ'. The movement is supported openly by various
denominations of Nagaland's churches and it gets funds from Western
countries. Muivah is accused of having engineered the 1992-1993 ethnic
cleansing of Kuki tribes in Manipur which is said to have claimed more
than 900 lives. During that NSCN-IM operation, 350 Kuki villages were
uprooted and 100,000 Kukis were turned into refugees.

They are bewildered why such a person is given so much importance and
Z-plus security cover. Is the only 'crime' of the Manipuris that they
still owe an allegiance to the Indian tricolour?

Manipuris oppose Muivah's visit to his ancestral village Somdal in
Ukhrul district. It may shock many that Muivah is originally a
Manipuri Naga, hence his credibility amongst the Naga-Nagas is low.
Manipuris fear this will further accelerate and strengthen his demand
to merge four Manipuri districts into his proposed Nagalim state.

The Government of India has so far not assured it will keep Manipur's
territorial integrity intact.

Non-Manipuris, organised under a banner, quite ironically called the
'Hindustani Samaj', are in a deadly trap.

On March 17, 2008, eight non-Manipuri people were killed on the
outskirts of the capital Imphal. Seven of them were brought in a van,
lined up on the roadside with their hands tied behind their backs, and
shot dead from close range with automatic weapons. A few miles away
another non-Manipuri was shot dead in similar circumstances. This was
the first time in Manipur that militants targeted non-local migrants
who are either labourers or petty traders.

In the two years since then 32 non-Manipuris, mostly Biharis and
Bengalis, have been killed.

This year in February, the Revolutionary People's Front, a banned
organisation in Manipur through its armed outfit, the Peoples'
Liberation Army issued a quit notice to all Mayaangs -- a derogatory
term used for non-Manipuris, who came to Manipur after 1949 (the year
when the princely state was merged with the Indian Union) to leave the
state by May 31.

Non-Manipuris travelling from Guwahati to Imphal by bus -- the only
mode of travel available to poor people -- have been denied tickets at
Guwahati ticket booking counters.

Yet none of the great national leaders or organisations, barring the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party [ Images ],
have thought it fit to voice the pain and anguish of the Manipuri
people. Neither the television channels nor national newspapers sent
their correspondents to cover the unprecedented crisis.

That's what makes the north-eastern people think that Delhi does not
care for them. Hindustan's boundaries for the so-called mainland
politicos are up to Kolkata [ Images ] in the east and Amarnath in the
north. Even the local Manipur media cannot refuse to publish
threatening press releases of the terrorist groups.

In the famous Mothers' Market in Imphal, the women traders seethe in
anger. Their leader Mangi Devi says, "How do you think our children
will get a good education when 15 days a month, their schools are
forcibly closed? Can they ever think of qualifying for the IAS and IPS
like your children in Delhi? There is no petrol, no kerosene, it has
become extremely difficult for the common person to travel to his
village, no medicines in hospitals. Is this the India we should be
proud of?"

The Manipuri people hardly get to celebrate Independence Day or
Republic Day -- they are not allowed by the banned outfits who
virtually dictate the state's life. Only under heavy security cover
can government buildings hoist the tricolour for a short time.

No school, public place, private institution can display the national
colours. Hindi is banned; Hindi movies have not been allowed in movie
theatres for the last ten years. In school textbooks, the national
anthem cannot be printed.

Every single government contract has a 20 percent share for the
terrorist separatist organisations and government officials take cash
out in bundles and distribute it, according to the size and influence
of the organisation, to their representatives whenever a new contract
is awarded.

Leaders of various social organisations are so terrified are no local
political party has been able to condemn the threat to the
non-Manipuris. The market wears a ghostly look after 6 pm and the last
movie show (all showing either Manipuri movies, shot on video cameras
or Korean ones) is at 4 pm. Unemployment is widespread; educational
degrees from local colleges mean nothing as they are given without a
proper regimen.

With none to protect them and engulfed in such a darkness it is a
great tribute to the patriotic Manipuris that they suffer in silence
and have not yet revolted.

Tarun Vijay is the Bharatiya Janata Party's national spokesperson and
director, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, New Delhi.