Ibobi Singh skirts blockade issue
Naga students protest in Delhi on Thursday.
New Delhi, Oct 14 : Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh today claimed that reports of blockade-induced price hike were unfounded, even challenging Delhi-based reporters to visit Manipur and find out the truth for themselves.
“You people sit here and report, come to Manipur tomorrow and see it is not true,” Ibobi Singh told reporters waiting outside North Block, where he had a meeting with Union home minister P. Chidambaram.
For more than two months now two arterial national highways from Assam to Manipur and Mizoram are under siege, with Kuki activists demanding a separate district called Sadar Hills and the Nagas who have been opposing such a move without the consent of the community which has been living there for years.
The chief minister was here to deliberate on the crisis.
Reports having been doing the rounds that the price of petrol was Rs 120 in Imphal and that of an LPG cylinder prices touched Rs 1,500.
Though Ibobi Singh did not even hint at a solution to the blockades, he confirmed the date of the Assembly elections in the state.
“Elections will be held in February,” Ibobi Singh told The Telegraph after a meeting with Chidambaram today, ruling out any chances of early polls.
While Ibobi Singh deliberated on the poll, protesting students in Delhi shouted slogans against the Manipur government to pre-empt any decision to carve out a separate district as demanded by the Kukis.
The Kuki organisation, the Sadar Hills District Demand Committee, imposed the economic blockade on the national highway from Dimapur to Imphal in the first week of August.
A “counter economic blockade” was declared by the United Naga Council on August 21, against the demand.
The government has not tried to broker peace so far.
Instead, Ibobi Singh formed a committee to reorganise all districts and left for Tokyo in September, leaving the divisions to fester and grow.
“There is a trust deficit among the communities. It is up to the statesmen in India (to find solutions) as we have a poverty of ideas,” Prof. Gangumei Kamei, national fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, said from Shimla.
The trust deficit was glaring at a protest here.
Naga Students Union Delhi protested at Jantar Mantar to thwart any decision in favour of the Kukis. Placards saying “No Sadar Hills without Nagas’ consent” were displayed. Their fears were unfounded, of course.
“No decision will be made until the district reorganisation committee submits its report. Only after that action will be taken,” said Ibobi Singh after meeting Chidambaram.
Asked if he considered the continuing economic blockade a failure of the state government, Ibobi Singh said it was a “very sensitive issue”, so he was not taking a decision.
Ngaranmi Shimray, an activist at the protest, said what was needed was a dialogue between the Kukis and the Nagas. The Manipur government has not done anything to facilitate dialogue between the communities, he complained.
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