Courting terror

The NDA government, which claims in Delhi to be a leading partner of the international coalition against terrorism, is deeply in cohorts with terrorist organisations in the elections to the state assembly of Manipur. As, alas, the elections in Manipur are the elections forgotten by the media, the collusive relationship between the BJP and the Samata party, on the one hand, and the NSCN(IM), on the other, has been one of the best-kept secrets of the past month.

The NSCN(IM) is an underground insurgent organisation, banned by the Union ministry of home affairs. It stands for an independent Nagalim, carved out of the state of Nagaland and adjoining Naga-inhabited areas stretching north of Nagaland into Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, south from Nagaland into the Manipur hill districts of Tamenglang, Senapati, Ukhrul and Chandel, and east into parts of Myanmar. The NSCN(IM) is in internal rivalry with the NSCN(K), but, as the best organised underground movement in the region, has established mutually reinforcing ties with a variety of terrorist groups in different parts of the Northeast but most particularly in Manipur. Ever since its founding, it has consistently refused to participate in what it calls ‘‘Indian’’ elections. From time to time, as for example, in the last Lok Sabha elections, the NSCN(IM) enforces a boycott of elections through threats and the gun but has hitherto not played any partisan role in supporting one party or candidate against any other.

The role of the NSCN(IM) in the current elections marks a significant departure from its previous stand. In the Naga-inhabited hill districts of Manipur, the NSCN(IM) is resorting to kidnapping, intimidation and vicious violence to ensure victory for the candidates of the BJP and Samata party. The collaboration between terror and party politics extends to parts of Churachandpur district as well, in particular the assembly constituency of Henlep, where the Samata party has a significant stake.

The roots of the collusion go to the top and right back to the NDA government’s acceptance of the NSCN(IM) demand that the ‘‘ceasefire’’, which has been in operation since 1997, be extended beyond Nagaland ‘‘without territorial limits’’, thus implicitly recognising the NSCN(IM) claim to most of the hill areas of Manipur, as well as parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. While Nagaland has been in favour of a ceasefire to provide the framework of a negotiated political settlement with the entire range of Naga insurgent groups, the adjoining states are determined to militarily oppose the operations of the NSCN in their respective areas. Indeed, when it was suspected in 1997 that the Indian government’s negotiator, Swaraj Kaushal, was on the verge of conceding the NSCN(IM) demand, Manipur erupted in fury and it was only some fairly fancy footwork by Prime Minister Gujral that forestalled the situation getting completely out of hand. Thus, the BJP-led government stood fully forewarned of the consequences of adding the three little words ‘‘without territorial limits’’ to the Bangkok agreement of June 14, 2001. Yet, with shocking insensitivity and utter irresponsibility, the government instructed its negotiator, K. Padmanabhaiah, to do precisely that. As any schoolchild could have foretold, Imphal was convulsed and not till the Union government unilaterally withdraw its acceptance of those three words did the agitation simmer down.

The flames have been doused but the anger and anxiety glow like burning coals. The NSCN(IM), on its part, has refused to accept the deletion. And the Union government refuses to take military action against the insurgents even outside Nagaland. Thus the de jure stand that the ceasefire has not been extended to Manipur is contradicted by the de facto position that the ceasefire is being observed in Manipur. A grateful NSCN(IM) has, therefore, decided that their best hope lies in the BJP (and its partner in crime, the Samata party). Indeed, in a most indelicate manner, Prime Minister Vajpayee met Isak and Muivah of the NSCN in Osaka, Japan. One is not privy, of course, to what was discussed but the outcome in Manipur is the blatant collaboration between terror and saffron in the Naga-inhabited hill districts.

The collusion would hardly have been unhealthy if it had been limited to normal democratic politics. Indeed, it would have been welcomed as the first sign in decades of the NSCN wishing to be part of the Indian political system. The grim truth, however, is that there is nothing democratic or even political about this saffronisation of terror. The NSCN(IM) ordered all Naga candidates to Dimapur at gunpoint (in a state under President’s Rule and therefore ruled — albeit impotently — from Advani’s ministry). There, according to an affidavit filed by the Congress candidate for Chandel, L. Benjamin, he was forced to sign a withdrawal form which was carried by B.D. Behring, the BJP candidate, to Chandel and submitted to the returning officer by none other than the proposer of Behring himself! When the returning officer quite properly refused to accept the withdrawal form of the Congress candidate from the rival BJP candidate’s proposer, the NSCN(IM) arrived at Benjamin’s residence and threatened the family with instant annihilation if he were not summoned from his place of hiding in Imphal. To save his family, Benjamin rushed to Chandel and submitted his withdrawal, he says, at 4.20 pm, a good 80 minutes after the last hour for submitting withdrawals had passed. Nevertheless, his name has been struck from the ballot and terror has won virtually uncontested victory for the BJP. In the neighbouring constituency of Tegnoupal, a similar terror-driven conspiracy has resulted in the deletion of the name of the Congress candidate from the ballot and a hands-down win for the Samata candidate.

The withdrawal drama was followed by meetings in the Viewlands Baptist Church at Ukhrul, addressed by the V.S. Atem, the chief coordinator of the NSCN(IM) and, right under the nose of the administration, in the district headquarters of Senapati, organised by the United Naga Council (UNC), at which all Naga candidates compelled against their will and in flat contradiction of their party’s stand, pledged that they would withdraw from the assembly at the instance of the UNC whenever it deems that the ‘‘Naga cause’’ demands this. Thereafter, the veteran Naga Congress leader, Rishang Keishing, who has won his Phungyar seat seven times in a row, has been targeted by the NSCN(IM), his workers confined to their homes at gun-point, his offices closed down, and himself threatened with death if he ventures out. The latest outrage is the burning of the jeep of the Congress candidate in Ukrul, where Danny Shaiza of the BJP is the rival candidate.

If any of this had happened in UP, Punjab or Uttaranchal, the media would have pounced on the story. But because the election in faraway Manipur is the forgotten election, the saffronisation of terror has proceeded unimpeded.

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