Rebel leader shares thoughts on PLA’s 43rd raising day-I

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Sep 24: Greeting all the people of the land on the 43rd raising day of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), RPF president Irengbam Chaoren has questioned how long the people of Manipur can protect their distinct identity.  
After the Cold war, “Peace and Development” became the motto of the new world but in Manipur, the concept of ‘development’ is only superficial and it has no real meaning.
The pseudo-leaders of Manipur think that Manipur would not survive without external aid, more precisely from India.
“After these 70 years of alleged annexation by India, there is no meaningful development in this State and it only testifies we are a group of people who do not have a firm stance”, asserted a lengthy statement issued by Irengbam Chaoren,
People’s livelihood is dependent on the mercy and favour of the Indian Government as the State’s economic activities depend on them.
“On top of this, the so-called leaders of Manipur have been sparing no efforts to drag the whole population of the State into the Indian polity, traditions and ways of life. This forlorn situation evokes a serious question how long we can protect our distinct identity”, the rebel leader questioned.
On the occasion of the 43rd raising day of the PLA, the rebel leader saluted all those brave souls who sacrificed their lives in the course of the revolutionary movement for Manipur.    
Noting that the COVID-19 pandemic has been taking a very heavy toll on the entire humanity, the outfit conveyed solidarity to all those grieving families who either have lost a loved one or lost their ways of livelihood or were hit hard by this pandemic in any form.
The Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) salute and would like to show our sincere gratitude to the brave front line workers, volunteers and the common people who work continuously for the betterment of the State during this pandemic, read the statement.
A large number of Indian military forces are being deployed all over Manipur in the name of securing borders and empowered with several draconian laws in the name of maintenance of law and order, they (Indian military forces) have been keeping the entire population of Manipur under the barrels of their guns. This is not a characteristic of a secure and peaceful society, alleged the rebel leader.
By employing these draconian, inhumane laws, many innocent citizens were killed, tortured, raped and forced to disappear involuntarily in the name of suppressing the revolutionary movement. The Indian military forces are here to suppress the people at gunpoint and destroy all the ideas and spirit of the liberation movement. The real intention of the Government of India and deployment of their military forces is to colonise the State and divide its people by playing divide and rule policies, it alleged.
It went on to allege that the major factor behind the rivalry and polarisation among the people of Manipur is the Indian Government.
“If we do not  stop this, Manipur built up by our forefathers with their blood and sweat who never surrendered to any foreign power, and thus known as “the Heroic Country” would remain under the alleged Indian occupation for a very long time. For this very reason, we need to go hand in hand and take part in the revolution to save the more than 2000 years old history of freedom and prevent India from swallowing Manipur completely”, the statement continued.
Even though Manipur, at present, is a neo-colonial State under India, it is inevitable to compete with other developing Nations in the field of development. In tandem with the liberation movement, it is an inevitable collective duty of all the people to contribute whatever each man and woman can towards the development of Manipur.
Unfortunately, in Manipur, there is no worthy Government till today that can formulate plans which can make Manipur self-reliant and this is a major obstacle on the path of development.
From 1991, the Indian Government had devised a policy known as the “Look East Policy” (now “Act East Policy”) purportedly with the objective of bringing economic development in the region. After decades, the policy still remains an impressive plan in Government files without achieving any noticeable progress on ground.
The Government of Manipur has not initiated any plan to secure a prominent place for the State within the scope of New Delhi’s Act East Policy. The alleged puppet State Government seems totally uninterested in capitalising on Manipur’s strategic location at the intersection of Asia’s two major regions-South East Asia and South Asia, and right in the middle of Trans-Asian Highway.
The Government seems rather interested in collecting some commissions from big business and corporate houses, it remarked.
There is no indication as yet to designate Moreh and Jiribam as special economic zones and develop them as popular trading centres of the two major regions of Asia. Instead, the Indian Government has been fooling the people of the State by building the Jiri road (NH-37) and a few RCC bridges in the name of improving connectivity. The Government’s claim of building Jiri road as a major achievement sounds rather absurd and out of place in the present context, it derided.
The work of constructing a 210 kms long sub-standard road (Imphal-Jiribam road) in the 21st century which is 79 kms in straight line distance does not deserve any appreciation, it said.
On the other hand, many developing countries have been making all efforts to make roads shorter, notwithstanding topographical conditions, thus saving time spent in travelling. To make the distance shorter, all the hurdles were rectified at any cost to make travel more convenient and less time-consuming.
Roads and transport infrastructure built in different countries under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) were not welcomed by the Western countries specially the USA, and the US projected the initiative as a “Debt-Trap” set by the Chinese but the importance and benefits of the initiative were slowly acknowledged by other countries.
US President Joe Biden proposed a BRI-like initiative to many democratic countries. The G7 Summit  held in June 2021 proposed and studied the B3W (Build Back Better World). The US has already sanctioned $ 1.2 Trillion for the betterment of its road infrastructure, power supply and connectivity by following the footsteps of China’s development, it said.