The genesis of the dispute can be traced to the move by the Army, some six or seven years ago, to strengthen and better coordinate our defences along the entire international border with China and Myanmar. With that end in view, the Army proposed that the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) should be brought under the operational control of the Army in view of the belligerent postures of the Chinese Army all along the Himalayan border, especially the border along the Tibet region of China contiguous to Arunachal Pradesh. The proposal, reportedly, did not go down well with the MHA which controls the para-military ITBP. In the MHA’s opinion, the ITBP, which mans all the posts on the Indo-China border, including those on the higher reaches like the one at Gya at an altitude of 22,500 feet, is functioning well in a most difficult terrain and nothing should be done to disturb its organizational command, control and cohesion.

The proposal was then shot down. Now, the Defence Ministry has come up with the proposal that the Assam Rifles be handed over the operational control of the entire Indo-China border, or, technically speaking, the Line of Actual Control (LAC). And now it is the Home Ministry’s turn to demand replacement of the Assam Rifles guarding the 1643 km long border with Myanmar with the BSF. The Home Ministry is reportedly not very happy with the functioning of the Assam Rifles either as a counter-insurgency force or as a force which has effectively guarded the Indo-Myanmar border. It has not been able to stop the free egress and ingress of insurgents belonging to different militant groups across the border.

Another contention of the Home Ministry is that most of the Assam Rifles posts are located much away from the border inside the Indian territory. A request to the Defence Ministry to move the Assam Rifles right up to the Myanmar border has not yet been acted upon, it is said. This point, again, is a controversial one. The Assam Rifles pleads that its infrastructural strength and transportation facilities are inadequate to the task it is being asked to perform and that when it sought to raise its force strength, it did not meet with the approval of the Home Ministry.

But the Army is against any proposal to remove the Assam Rifles from the border. Its argument is that the removal of the Assam Rifles would deprive it (the Army) of the knowledge and operational experience that the Assam Rifles has gathered in the area. It is also being pointed out that the primary task of the BSF is to guard the Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangladesh border. Guarding the Indo-Myanmar border would be an additional responsibility for it and does not quite fit in with the “one border one force” doctrine adopted in 2001.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) of Manipur R. K. Sanaiyama, better known as Meghen, has revealed that there is a “unification” move by seven armed militant groups operating in Myanmar. According to him this is a “step forward in the ongoing revolutionary struggle” of the Manipuri people. Meghen, who had taken refuge in Bangladesh, was arrested by the Dhaka authorities in October last year and handed over to India. He has been in the custody of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) since then.

He has reportedly told his interrogators that he had met Paresh Barua, the self-styled “commander-in-chief” of the ULFA in Shanghai at the time of the International Expo held last year. He told reporters about the unification move at Guwahati where he is being tried in a special court. Meghen still maintains that Manipur was “forcibly annexed” by India in 1949 and insists that the future of Manipur can be decided only after holding a plebiscite. And the plebiscite can take place only under the aegis of the UNLF.

Barua is against any political settlement and is determined to carry on the so-called “armed struggle” which actually means little more than raising money by extortion and occasional bomb blasts to kill innocent people. He has denounced the ULFA chairman Paresh Barua and his friends for engaging in peace talks with the Government.

A series of bomb blasts have recently rocked Manipur. The last one took place on August 1, killing five persons including two ten-year-old girl students who were returning home from school. The terror attack, for which no one has claimed responsibility, has sent shock-waves through the State and been condemned by all sections of society. Maybe, the “unification” move has given birth to a body which is yet to be named. (IPA Service)