DC Edit | Need to rebuild trust in Manipur

After leaving Manipur in anarchy for one-and-a-half years, the Union government appears to have woken up to the dangers posed by the status quo and come up with plans to nudge the state back to peace. The send-off to the divider-in-chief N. Birendra Singh as chief minister was the first step, and it is being followed by a call to the people and rebels of all hues to surrender the arms they have looted from police stations with a comprehensive crackdown warning announced at the end of the deadline of February 26.

The positive response from the people and rebels to the call by the governor to return the arms must work as a platform for the government to take the next step. It is estimated that around 2,000 of the 6,000 looted weapons including rifles, grenades and grenade-launchers have been deposited, while hope abounds of more returns. The immediate task before the government is to convince the citizens that it will be a fair enforcer of the law of the land and that returning the arms is the best course of action to be followed. But it will also have to erase the scars that partisan projects of the previous administration have left in the minds of the tribal population.

The folly of governments has often been to believe that they can rely on the might of the armed forces to disarm and subjugate. But such a strategy has hardly succeeded, instead resulting in massive bloodshed as long as the root cause of the disaffection stayed in place. Winning the trust of the people who belong to diverse ethnic, cultural and geographic groups is the most important goal now. Once that is achieved, finding common cause for all to live peacefully and work towards prosperity will come easier. All along the way, the government must resist the temptation to take recourse to physical force and instead avail the tools proffered by federalism and democracy.