Looking back at the Oct 15 meeting Many unanswered points

A Separate Administration for the Kuki-Zo community is a prerequisite for any peace dialogue. This is not just some random line for it comes from the statement issued by the Convenor Secretary of the Kuki-Zo MLAs, who seemingly goes by the mononym Chinlunthang, an MLA from Singhat Assembly Constituency, straigth after the Delhi dialogue convened by the Intelligence Bureau under the Union Home Ministry on October 15. On the same day and at about the same time the Kuki-Zo MLAs issued the statement quoted above, the Press Information Bureau of the Central Government issued a statement that the meeting has agreed that all the Kuki-Zo, Meitei and Naga MLAs will work to ensure peace and one is left wondering, which of the two is lying. A question raised in an earlier commentary here but this question is important for the Delhi schedule cannot be taken as just another meeting over a cup of chai but had everything to do with the ongoing violence which has already crossed the 17th month mark. That the Delhi mandarins, folks hand picked by the Union Home Ministry, first met the Kuki-Zo MLAs has been reported widely, followed by a meeting with the Meitei, Naga and possibly Kuki-Zo MLAs again. Mark the need to italicise the word possibly and hereby hangs a tale, a big tale. Did the MLAs from the three sides interact with each other ? Were their cases heard at length or were they given the opportunity to spell out the stand of their respective people ? To put it bluntly did the Delhi meeting come anywhere near the understanding of a peace dialogue ? This question is important when looked against the backdrop of the statement issued by the Kuki-Zo MLAs and that too after the meeting and this is where the need to raise the question whether a peace dialogue was actually held on October 15 or not. Only the MLAs who went to Delhi can answer this question, but it stands that the few contacts that The Sangai Express got in touch with did not elaborate on whether there was any communication amongst the MLAs or not. That such a meeting was convened is commendable, a point already noted earlier in this column, but would it be right to say that a dialogue, whether it comes with the word peace or not, has started ? Was the  decision to jointly call for peace a decision taken by the MLAs or was it something that was put into the mouth of the MLAs by the personalities appointed by the Union Home Ministry ?
This poser should be understood in the context of the gunfight that ensued at Koutruk late in the night of October 16, that is 24 hours after the call for peace was issued. And this is where the assertion of the Kuki-Zo MLAs that Separate Administration must be the prerequisite for any peace dialogue takes on an ominous turn. An indication that the Koutruk was attacked because restraining voices had not come from the Kuki-Zo MLAs ? Only the people concerned can answer this, but it should be clear that something, somewhere is just not right in the way the ongoing violence has been dealt with. Why did BJP leader Sambit Patra and the other personalities hand picked by the Centre deemed it better to first meet the Kuki-Zo MLAs ? Was it an indication that they did not want the Naga and Meitei MLAs to be present when the Kuki-Zo MLAs brought up the topic of Separate Administration ? Was a joint meeting held at all or was it just a case of seeing each other and nodding one’s head towards each another over a cup of tea ? As noted, only the MLAs who attended the meeting will have the answer, and in such a scenario it is not surprising to see so many conspiracy theories, some within the understanding of the possible and some far fetched ideas and thoughts, doing the round and this cannot be healthy for the overall situation in the State. Has any thought been given to this possibility, which has now become a reality, by the Government, either at Delhi or Imphal ? For the moment, no one knows how things will progress, but the Government certainly cannot afford to maintain the ‘don’t know how things will progress’ any longer. For starters demonstrate that there is a Government in place.