The Manipur tragedy

I recently read an article by Tarun Vijay. It was an interesting read. For more than 6 weeks now, the tribals of Manipur have blocked two highways- NH39 and NH53 that lead into the state. They are protesting against the Manipur government’s decision not to allow Mr. Muivah to visit his birthplace in Manipur. Mr Muivah  is the head of National Socialist Council of Nagaland, which is fighting for “Greater Nagaland”. A detailed report on the issue can be found here.

This road blockage has lead to several problems. A litre of petrol is being sold at Rs 200, a cooking gas cylinder for Rs 1,500, while a kilogram of rice is being sold at Rs 70. Hospitals are running short of medicines and are discharging untreated patients, leave alone admitting new ones! People are dying out there. An Indian state is cut off from the rest of the nation!

And where is the media? I did a Google search for ‘Manipur Blockade’ and among the news items that showed up, most were last updated on May 12th, 10 days back! The blockade is still on. People are dying out there! I’m very sure that this wouldn’t have been the case if Manipur was in central India or a politically important state.