Northeast Platform

by Charles Chasie “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…” — Charles Dickens in Tale of Two Cities “Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, [who] infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How will I know? For this I have done. And I am Julius Caesar”. — William Shakespeare in Jul

by Anil Bhat Manipur’s media has been bearing the brunt of both menacing threats from the many terrorist groups and pressure from the state government. While some reporters have been killed, quite often editors have been hounded and even abducted. So, reporting on the deterioration of security and law and order in Manipur right since 2004 has been quite hazardous. This daily is out of the few in New Delhi which has been regularly reporting on the situation in Manipur and the north-eastern states, interspersed by comment pieces now and then. It is no wonder then that two disturbing and highly newsworthy developments in Manipur, which local correspondents and reporters may have been justifiably been hesitant to report on, came my way through two retired Army officers in Imphal, who write regularly for local dailies. Major R.S. Jassal, who served in Assam Rifles, married a Tangkhul Naga lady and settled in Manipur, has written about how non-Manipuris are being intimidated by undergro

27/5/2010 by Yambem Laba WHEN Thuingaleng Muivah left for the jungles to wage a bush war against India more than 40 years ago, never once did he think of returning home. Which is one reason why he was never caught. Instead, he trekked to China’s Yunan province and made the Kachinland and Somra tract in Myanmar his home, from where he directed his cadres in hit-and-run tactics. By 1980 he emerged as the flag-bearer of Naga insurgency following the ill-fated 1975 Shillong Accord. In 1988, when the NSCN broke up, he almost lost his life. He ought to be thankful to the Meiteis for saving him for it was the United National Liberation Front that had warned him of the impending danger when the Pangmeis and Konyak cadres rose in revolt against Tangkhul domination. However, in the skirmishes that followed, he lost his trusted aide, Lt-Col Luitha Tangkhul, and a host of other Tangkhul followers. Around the same time, R Minshaming, then chairman of the Tangkhul region of the NSCN, was caught by