Need to give more meaning to War on Drugs Unmask the big fishes
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Nearly seven years since the War on Drugs campaign was launched and between 2018 and 2025 or say 2024, how many big fishes have been netted by the BJP led Government at Imphal ? This question is important, given that the Government has not stopped claiming that one of the primary reasons for the May 3, 2023 outbreak of violence was due to the crackdown launched against poppy cultivation. The Government must have its reason for asserting this line and just how deeply this runs can be gauged from the manner in which the term ‘narco-terrorists’ has entered the lexicon of the common people while referring to the ongoing Kuki-Meitei clash. There are reasons to go along with this line of belief for it was not without a reason why a number of people, in full battle fatigues and armed to the teeth, were part of the rampaging crowd which made its way to Torbung after the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023. And it is under the War on Drugs campaign that news of security personnel razing poppy cultivations to the ground have regularly made it to Page 1 of all the major newspapers published from Imphal. And it also stands that the understanding of the War on Drugs cannot begin and end with the destruction drive of poppy plantations for it entails a whole lot of network involving the moneyed and powerful people. So even as news of large swathes of poppy cultivations being destroyed have been a staple diet for Manipur in the last many months, the Government does not seem to have proceeded beyond the exercise of destroying the standing poppy plants. Tough to say if any efforts have been made to go beyond the poppy plants one sees on the hillsides but it stands that apart from arresting some cultivators and picking up one or two village chiefs, Manipur has not heard of any efforts being made to break the chain of command behind the large scale poppy plantation. A line which The Sangai Express has been maintaining for years for it stands that while petty pushers and drug carriers have been arrested now and then, no one knows what further actions have been taken up by the Government. To repeat a case cited here many times, no one knows the follow up action of the huge seizure of drugs from some police personnel at Pallel some time back. The monetary value of the drugs seized back then had run into crores of rupees but that was the end of the story with the Government quiet on the others who were involved in the drug smuggling work. This is but one example that comes to mind and there are countless others where a news story begins and ends with the arrest of two or three people with no visible signs that the Government has worked towards unmasking the people standing behind the scene. Or is it possible for any policeman to have the resources and the contacts to procure the drugs worth crores of rupees and attempt to smuggle it outside to a place where the market would be bigger ?
The answer should be obvious to all and it is the failure of the Government to spell out the follow up stories which dilutes the understanding of the War on Drugs campaign. It has to be more than a verbal campaign. This is the bottomline and questions will be raised why the Government has always failed to look beyond the obvious and come out with something more substantive such as the elements who are financing the poppy plantations and those buying the harvested poppy plants. Something has to give. The Government will need to move beyond arresting the petty drug pushers, the tillers of the soil who directly plant and nurture the poppy plants. This should be the logical fallout of the campaign launched to destroy poppy plantations. Manipur still has a lot to do and the topmost priority is sincerity and honesty. If the fight against the drug cartel is to have any meaning, then the big fishes will need to be exposed. Arresting some drug pushers or drug couriers with no further follow up stories can at best be described as dealing with the symptoms and not the disease itself. The Government will need to buck up and ensure that more meaning is given to the understanding of the War on Drugs campaign for it should be clear that drug money could well be financing the war on Manipur.
The answer should be obvious to all and it is the failure of the Government to spell out the follow up stories which dilutes the understanding of the War on Drugs campaign. It has to be more than a verbal campaign. This is the bottomline and questions will be raised why the Government has always failed to look beyond the obvious and come out with something more substantive such as the elements who are financing the poppy plantations and those buying the harvested poppy plants. Something has to give. The Government will need to move beyond arresting the petty drug pushers, the tillers of the soil who directly plant and nurture the poppy plants. This should be the logical fallout of the campaign launched to destroy poppy plantations. Manipur still has a lot to do and the topmost priority is sincerity and honesty. If the fight against the drug cartel is to have any meaning, then the big fishes will need to be exposed. Arresting some drug pushers or drug couriers with no further follow up stories can at best be described as dealing with the symptoms and not the disease itself. The Government will need to buck up and ensure that more meaning is given to the understanding of the War on Drugs campaign for it should be clear that drug money could well be financing the war on Manipur.