Talk time

The peace pact between the Manipur government and a separatist UNLF faction serves the interests of both parties in the short term

- SANJIB KR BARUAH

As his cavalcade raced to Imphal’s Bir Tikendrajit International Airport on the morning of November 27, Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh would have been in an upbeat mood.

Unlike in the past few months, when he often rushed to Delhi to defend his government’s efforts to stop the spiralling ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis, this time would be different, the 62-year-old would have thought.

There were two important tasks at hand.

The next day, he, along with Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, would unveil the crest of INS Imphal—India’s latest stealth-guided missile destroyer and an example of India’s increasing capability to make cutting-edge warships at home.

On the destroyer’s crest would be emblazoned the Kangla fort and the ‘Kangla-Sa’, or the mythical dragon-lion, which is also the state emblem. This would be the first time a warship was to be named after a city in the northeast.

The more critical event, however, would be the signing of a pact between the Centre, the state and the secessionist United National Liberation Front (Pambei) on November 29. Ever since he became chief minister in March 2017, Biren had been trying to get valley-based Meitei insurgent outfits to come to the negotiating table. After the Basque nationalists’ Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) ceased operations five years ago in Spain, the Naga and Manipur underground movements would rank among the world’s longest-running insurgencies.