Of Denials and Promises

Over the years, the government of India has shown itself to be quite unmatched in its ability to deny actions taken earlier that turn out to be somewhat thoughtless later on. This is a style of governce that needs to be given up forthwith because (a) it causes pointless alarm among the affected people and disrupts systematic functioning of the government, and (b) it discredits the government because of its frequent need to break irresponsible and hasty promises made earlier that are quite incapable of being honoured without the possibility of stoking commul violence that it always claims to be very keen on avoiding. This is the kind of action that strikes at the very roots of the credibility that the government ought to acquire in order to be trusted by the people. The present reference is to the announcement made last week by NSCN (I-M) chief T. Muivah to the Framework Agreement signed between the Union government and the NSCN (I-M) in the presence of Prime Minister rendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajth Singh on 3 August 2015 about the creation of a Greater galim by adding territory taken from Aruchal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur to  galand so that Greater galim so created is about seven times the size of present galand and about 1.5 times the size of Assam. We see no justification for this or for the grant of the special status of a sovereign entity outside India that the NSCN (I-M) has been demanding. We are most closely concerned with the history of galand of the past seven decades during which it has been constituent State of India conducting elections, forming councils of ministers and carrying on administration like any other constituent State of the Indian Union. This part of our familiar history cannot be wiped off just because that is the wish of the NSCN (I-M) or the people of galand. One cannot accept the principle in a democracy that just because people of a particular community live in large numbers in any part of a State, that part of the State should be made over to people of that community. If that were so, almost half of the city of Bengaluru in Kartaka would have to be handed over to Tamil du. In any case, what seems to have happened is that people in New Delhi have woken up to the realization that the Framework Agreement with the NSCN (I-M) was a terrible mistake (the result of an abiding fear of the gas due to past experience?) because of the injustice that it does to neighbouring States that stand to lose their territory. The Chief Minister of Assam clarified last Friday that no discussion had take place with the Centre regarding the demand of galim. This is as welcome a realization as the one within the RSS that Hindu migrants who have taken shelter in India should not be settled in Assam alone.