Nobody knows whether the survey of poppy plantations this season by state and central agencies had been completed or not. A few weeks ago, the Chief Minister N Biren Singh had disclosed to a group of senior journalists that the survey is almost complete and that in Churachandpur a sizeable increase in poppy plantation had been detected.
Following a series of reported assurance given by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the Chief Minister N Biren Singh on October 6 said on the sidelines of a function that destruction of poppy plantations using Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters would start after a survey of poppy plantation areas is completed. But, still no word on whether the survey had been completed or not and when could the people expect destruction of the ripe poppy pods.
Just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the Manipur crisis, the fate of poppy destruction hangs in balance. What if every stakeholder is waiting for the harvest to be completed before the ‘planned destruction’? This question has become all the more pertinent as police and security forces suddenly become engaged in Moreh following the killing of an MPS officer and the coordinated spate of attacks in the periphery villages of the valley from the surrounding hills.
Once there was a joke doing the rounds that, law enforcement personnel engaged with destroying poppy fields have a habit of waiting for the pods to ripen and harvest. Now, the question has again come up as to when will the destruction of poppy fields (of course, before it is harvested) begin. Something is in the wind, of that every stakeholder is sure.
The idea of destroying poppy fields before harvest is to cut the revenue stream of the cartel bosses and to discourage any future effort to resort to poppy plantation again in the hills of Manipur. If they manage to harvest the poppy fields it is victory for the bosses who will again ignite the unrest to extract a pound of flesh from both the Centre and the state government.
It is at such a juncture that the possibility of destroying the vast fields of poppy by bombardment involving the Indian Air Force planes and helicopters was mooted from certain circles. It made news in both the state and the national media. And the proposal was somehow attributed to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. In mid-September, a delegation of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an umbrella body of civil society organisations based in the Imphal valley, met Rajnath Singh at his official residence in New Delhi and briefed him about narco-terrorism.
And Rajnath Singh reportedly assured the delegation that the central government would use IAF planes to destroy poppy fields in Manipur if the state government were to approach it for the same, according to the media briefing given by COCOMI. A few days later, a few MLAs who were camping in New Delhi to seek an audience with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the Defence Minister who denied saying anything about using IAF planes to destroy poppy fields and the matter was laid to rest although there was a flutter in the social media.
The matter was again brought out in the public domain by relentless campaigner of the Manipur unrest and national general secretary of Republican Party of India (Athawale) Maheshwar Thounaojam. According to him, he was assured by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh that the IAF had been directed to destroy the poppy fields of Manipur before the harvest season when he met him on October 3. He was supposed to have briefed the national media on this in New Delhi and it was carried out the next day. Nothing is happening? The Chief Minister is also keeping mum?
