The Manipur government must have a very compelling reason why it wants the proposed National Institute of Technology, NIT, in Imphal and nowhere else. We wish it would explain why this is so. In fact, we would have expected that it to provide the explanation without anybody asking it, considering there is so much resentment against the choice of the Langgol foothills as the site for the institute. On the one hand, the homestead and farmland owners in the Langgol area where the NIT is to come up are unwilling to give up their properties, and on the other, the hill districts want this institute situated in a hill district to fan out infrastructure, most of which are currently concentrated in the Greater Imphal area. Both demands have immense merit, and need to be considered seriously, although in the latter case, we must have to throw in a caveat or two. Imphal is not synonymous with the valley as is often made out to be, and the valley too is no longer synonymous with the Meiteis, as again is often deliberately or otherwise insinuated in many quarters. As a matter of fact, even between Imphal West and Imphal East districts, and more pronouncedly between Imphal municipal area and the expanse of sparsely inhabited suburban hinterland lying outside this circle and extending to the edges of other adjoining districts, clubbed broadly as the Greater Imphal area, there is a world of difference. It will be recalled how there was even a demand not so long ago that the Imphal East district should be considered a backward rural district.
The point is, here is a real problem, but let us treat it as an administrative issue rather than give it a dangerous ethnic twist. As a matter of fact, from the ethnic angle, against the backdrop of the multifaceted frictions between different ethnic groups in the state, Imphal may indeed be the most neutral point. Like it or not, if this factor were to be consideration, it may well be argued that an ordinary Naga may not find it comfortable in Churachandpur or Moreh, just as an ordinary Kuki may not be in his or her element in Tamenglong or Ukhrul. At least not just as yet. Let us also concede that no community would feel the same discomfort in Imphal, not only on account of its being the capital of the state, but also of its emerging cosmopolitan character. A demographic profile of the city would reveal that all communities are represented in good measures, although understandably in the Greater Imphal area (and not so much in the Imphal municipal area), the Meiteis would form the majority. But as we said, let ethnicity not be the issue here, and instead let administrative considerations determined how the state manages itself and its infrastructure. And on this consideration alone we are convinced that the state should begin fanning out its infrastructural assets to the hills, and it ought to have begun with the NIT.
The argument that the state’s administrative headquarters is most secure is too shallow, and an admission by the powers that be that anywhere outside of “Fortress Imphal” would remain a lawless frontier. This frog in the well mentality must be abandoned, and the sooner it is done the better it will be, for unless this bold leap is taken, the administrative mindset will remain holed up in the false sense of security that an ostrich gets from hiding its head in the sand. True there is a natural gravitational economic pull towards a city, and in our context the epicentre is Imphal, but examples all over the world have proven that the most farsighted administrators have all felt it a need to counter this pull and build satellite nodes of administration away from the epicentre. The allusions from the exact science of physics notwithstanding, in the realm of politics, this is also known as federalism, and federalism is not a matter of administrative altruism, but sound politics. The other important consideration is, the valley is the virtual rice bowl of the state and every inch of it is valuable more as farmland than as real estate. We are of the opinion that to the extent possible, this must be the guiding principle in land use in the state (though in some cases this may not be feasible, as in the matter of developing airports etc). There is hence merit in the plea that the NIT should be located in the less agriculturally valuable, abundant tracks of land in the hills. If it must stick on to its plan, the government owes an explanation to the people? Must it always have to appear like a bulldozer of popular resistance?
IFP Editorial Februsry 25, 2008
The point is, here is a real problem, but let us treat it as an administrative issue rather than give it a dangerous ethnic twist. As a matter of fact, from the ethnic angle, against the backdrop of the multifaceted frictions between different ethnic groups in the state, Imphal may indeed be the most neutral point. Like it or not, if this factor were to be consideration, it may well be argued that an ordinary Naga may not find it comfortable in Churachandpur or Moreh, just as an ordinary Kuki may not be in his or her element in Tamenglong or Ukhrul. At least not just as yet. Let us also concede that no community would feel the same discomfort in Imphal, not only on account of its being the capital of the state, but also of its emerging cosmopolitan character. A demographic profile of the city would reveal that all communities are represented in good measures, although understandably in the Greater Imphal area (and not so much in the Imphal municipal area), the Meiteis would form the majority. But as we said, let ethnicity not be the issue here, and instead let administrative considerations determined how the state manages itself and its infrastructure. And on this consideration alone we are convinced that the state should begin fanning out its infrastructural assets to the hills, and it ought to have begun with the NIT.
The argument that the state’s administrative headquarters is most secure is too shallow, and an admission by the powers that be that anywhere outside of “Fortress Imphal” would remain a lawless frontier. This frog in the well mentality must be abandoned, and the sooner it is done the better it will be, for unless this bold leap is taken, the administrative mindset will remain holed up in the false sense of security that an ostrich gets from hiding its head in the sand. True there is a natural gravitational economic pull towards a city, and in our context the epicentre is Imphal, but examples all over the world have proven that the most farsighted administrators have all felt it a need to counter this pull and build satellite nodes of administration away from the epicentre. The allusions from the exact science of physics notwithstanding, in the realm of politics, this is also known as federalism, and federalism is not a matter of administrative altruism, but sound politics. The other important consideration is, the valley is the virtual rice bowl of the state and every inch of it is valuable more as farmland than as real estate. We are of the opinion that to the extent possible, this must be the guiding principle in land use in the state (though in some cases this may not be feasible, as in the matter of developing airports etc). There is hence merit in the plea that the NIT should be located in the less agriculturally valuable, abundant tracks of land in the hills. If it must stick on to its plan, the government owes an explanation to the people? Must it always have to appear like a bulldozer of popular resistance?
IFP Editorial Februsry 25, 2008
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