On completion of 100 days of Modi government 3.0, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday announced that a roadmap has been created to address the issues in Manipur while assuring that talks are being held with both Kuki and Meitei groups. He said that the government has initiated the fencing of the India-Myanmar border to address the root cause of the problem. Approximately 30 km of the fencing has been completed, and the central government has approved a budget to fence the entire 1500 km border. He further said, to stop infiltration Centre had nullified the agreement between Myanmar and India which allowed the movement of the people, and now entry into India is allowed only by visa.
Well, there is nothing new in these steps as it had already been announced as early as February this year. The news about completion of 30 kms of border fencing is indeed welcome although nearly 1500 km stretch is yet to be taken. We have also heard of the inhospitable terrain along the border which impedes progress in work of fencing the border. On the other hand, a recent report in the Indian Express quoting Hime Ministry sources said that work of border fencing has been held up in Kuki-dominated areas of the border as a result of opposition from Kuki groups. If this is true, it reflects poorly on Centre’s resolve to tackle the infiltration issue.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s latest take on Manipur crisis is that infiltration from Myanmar was the root cause of the problem in Manipur. That is exactly why he stressed on border fencing and ending of Free Movement Regime (FMR) in his press conference the other day. When one talks of infiltration from across the border, it is about the Kuki-Chin people arriving in hordes in Manipur and causing innumerable problems ranging from drugs and poppy cultivation besides an unholy war against the indigenous population. So then, a half-hearted response to infiltration on the part of the central government would only aggravate the problems.
BJP leaders and their karyakatas loves to flag these problems as core problems plaguing the state. The core issues as they put it, are unrestricted access of illegal immigrants from across the border, foreign mercenaries equipped with sophisticated weapons crossing over to create chaos and mayhem in the state, drug cartels based in Myanmar financing poppy farming in the hills of Manipur and arming Kuki-Zo militant groups besides instigating racial hatred, the unresolved status of tripartite SoO agreement with the Kuki militants as compounded by ‘patronage’ from a few forces, and unrestricted encroachment of forests lands and new settlements by Kuki-Zos.
Well, how do we tackle these issues? They sing paeans about the scrapping of Free Movement Regime and border fencing by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. But question is, will it be able to stop the entry of illegal immigrants which have overwhelmed our villages in the border regions? While the official Indian government policy is against providing shelter to refugees, the border guarding force is either unable or unwilling to stop the flow of war-ravaged illegal immigrants from across the border. Maybe, it is a humanitarian gesture but every other day the number of illegal immigrants keep increasing. Point is, policy and execution do not match on the ground.
The state government is undertaking biometric registration of the illegal immigrants, but the process of deportation is negligible as compared to the number of entries. The BJP government here is still unable to convince its central leadership on the need for permanent abrogation of SoO or affirmative action against violations of ground rules and the integrity of the state. The Home Minister also claimed that the central government have successfully deployed CRPF at strategic locations. Orders for relocation of two Assam Rifles battalions from Kangpokpi and Churachandpur had been issued more than a month back. Well, there is stiff opposition from the Kukis against the relocation and there is apprehension of a roll-back on the decision.
