DEADLY MIX

The combination of factors in Manipur, including proximity to the international border, have serious implications for India

- SANJIB KR BARUAH

It is 3pm and the sun is blazing down. The lush green plains and paddy fields readied for sowing are in the shade of the mountains. A smartly dressed Rameshwar Basnet, 48, wearing sunglasses, staggers out from a hutment, seemingly quite drunk. Almost zombie-like, he asks: "Daju (elder brother in Nepali), could you lend me a tenner?" Basnet (named changed) is a resident of Kanglatongbi, a Nepali-dominated settlement near National Highway 37, located in a 'buffer zone' demarcating Meitei and Kuki areas. One could only guess what would make a man want to stay drunk all the time. After all, prolonged unrest has its own way of extracting a toll.

Edging close, a CRPF trooper, a rifle cradled in his thick arms, quietly says: "Why does the media not report about how bad things really are? You all say things are normalising. They are not."

After decades of insurgencies-Naga, Meitei and Kuki-Manipur had seen the green shoots of peace for the last six to seven years. But, the current ethnic turmoil has taken the state back to where it was. Moreover, it could be much worse as, unlike in the past, the social fabric is in tatters. Sapam Bishwajit Meitei, an Imphal-based senior advocate, says: "For the last few years, the long-suffering people saw hopes of peace returning and businesses flourishing. But these latest flareups have taken the state back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. Civil strife has set in. One can only hope and pray that sense prevails."