Old Tactics, Limited Benefits

Subhashis Mittra

Reports regarding the extension of the ban on nearly a dozen Meitei extremist groups have not come as a bolt from the blue. The ban imposed by the government has been extended by five years, a practice that has become quite regular by now.

The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has informed Parliament that it has so far banned 54 terrorists and 44 terrorist organisations under the fourth schedule and the first schedule of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for a period of five years.

First comes the ban and then its extension, but the desired result is not achieved as these outfits often change their nomenclature in order to carry out their clandestine activities as proxy groups, targeting the security establishment. A fallout is that the list of banned organisations keeps growing longer as these bans, once imposed, are hardly ever lifted.

Certain banned organisations have moved the UAPA tribunal or even higher courts for solace, but the hearings go on endlessly without any final outcome.

The MHA recently extended a ban by five years on nine Meitei extremist groups and associate organisations which mostly operate in Manipur, for their anti-national activities and launching fatal attacks on security forces.

According to a notification issued by the MHA, the Meitei extremist organisations have declared, as their professed aim, the establishment of an independent nation by the secession of Manipur from India through armed struggle and to incite indigenous people of Manipur for such secession.

The groups that have been banned by the ministry for five years are the People’s Liberation Army—generally known as PLA and its political wing Revolutionary Peoples’ Front (RPF), the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and its armed wing Manipur Peoples’ Army (MPA). The Peoples’ Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), the Kanglei Yaol Kanba Lup (KYKL), the Coordination Committee (CorCom) and the Alliance for Socialist Unity Kangleipak (ASUK) have al