Scripting the tragedy of Sept 28 Losing the plot completely

The predicted large scale attack from well trained 900 Kuki militants, grouped into units of 30 members each, never came on September 28, in line with the roll back of the false alarm raised by the Security Advisor, but Manipur did wake up to the disturbing news of three youths being taken captive by Kuki militants after they strayed into areas dominated by the Kukis. This happened on September 27 and fortunately one of them was rescued by the security personnel late in the night when Manipur was in deep sleep. This much is known, but no one knows about the fate of the other two who are still in captivity. Last heard the  State Government was leaving no stone unturned to secure the release of the two abducted youths and Manipur just has to keep its fingers crossed and pray for the best. This is what may be said with a degree of certainty right now, and along with this what is also obvious is the fact that Imphal and Delhi have completely lost the plot. The plot on how to deal with the situation. While Delhi has exposed itself as an indifferent entity, letting the situation to continue like this for more than 500 days, Imphal has been left completely paralysed, a point underlined by the fact that its writ does not stretch beyond the valley districts.   It is more than obvious that Kuki militants now rule the roost beyond Kanglatongbi on the Imphal-Dimapur highway and the writ of the Government does not extend beyond Torbung on the southern side where the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum and Kuki militants are calling the shot. This reality has not disturbed Delhi one bit for while Manipur continues to burn, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is more than willing to play the peace maker across the world while Imphal has apparently lost track and lost the plot. One also wonders how the three youths managed to reportedly make their way to Sapermeina, which is located way beyond Kanglatongbi, in their bid to reach Keithelmanbi where a recruitment drive was to be conducted. How did the three youths going on a motorcycle cross Kanglatongbi ? Or did they take a detour through the jungles to emerge at Sapermeina ? Only questions at the moment, but the Government needs to study this and spell out their findings to the people. It is also time for the Meiteis to come to the point that too many lives have been lost unnecessarily, that everyone need to be sensitised to the gravity of the situation, to the reality of the past 16 months.
Even as Manipur was grappling with the abduction of the three youths, with one being rescued later, the people woke up to the video clippings of the two youths fervently appealing to the Chief Minister to give in to the demands of the Kuki militants on September 29. It is not very clear what the demands are, but here is a classic case of a gang of abductors laying down conditions before the Government to secure the release of the hostages. Things cannot get worse than this and to think that Delhi is still keeping the status of the Suspension of Operation pact under a cloud of confusion and things should be clear on how Manipur has been toyed and played around with for over 16 months. So how will Imphal proceed ? Can it get Delhi to intervene and secure the release of the two youths in captivity ? No clear cut answer here but Imphal should accept the fact that every failure of Delhi to act accordingly is a reflection of its failure to present the case of Manipur effectively. Things cannot continue like this forever. The fact however is that there is nothing to indicate that things will take a turn for the better in the coming days. So even as totally innocent youths are being picked up and kept hostages and conditions laid before the Government if the youths are to be released, one sees the emergence of power centres, which have not hesitated to throw their weight around. Instead of focusing one’s attention on how to strengthen the idea of Manipur, there have been instances of muscle flexing exercises which have made the lives of the citizens all that more uncertain. The failure of Imphal is also writ large here.