Nearly a month ago, an 84-year-old man and the editor of a Manipuri newspaper were arrested in Imphal by the Manipur police for allegedly making seditious remarks. The old man was Thounaojam Iboyaima, chief adviser to the All-Manipur Clubs' Organisation, a non-government group that had rallied the Meiteis, the predominant community of the Imphal Valley, in major public rallies against any carving up of Manipur. The journalist was N. Biren of the Nahaolgi Thoudang.

Accounts from Imphal say that the report of the meeting was published by all newspapers but this particular one was singled out for special treatment. The two were arrested for making these supposed statements at Cheriaoching, outside Imphal, on April 9. The event took place five days before the anniversary of the People Liberation Army, one of the older militant groups of the state.

However, the judge who heard the case threw it out of court a few days ago, declaring that newspaper reports could not be construed as primary evidence under Indian law.

Yet, there has been barely a whisper in the metropolitan media about the case and these two men. If it had happened in a major city of the Hindi heartland, then the press would have been charging all over the place, breathing righteous indignation and fire and brimstone at the government. Nothing of the sort happened here to the shame of the "national" press. No wonder that journalists of the Northeast also feel alienated >from the rest of the country, not just other segments of society which face the pressure of the security forces or the deviousness and corruption of the state. The local press boycotted the government's activities in Manipur during this period; a bandh was called and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, a New York-based organisation that speaks up for journalists under intimidation, called for the release of both men.

As the Northeast Vigil, a magazine which reports on issues related to the Northeast, remarked: "The news, not unexpectedly, has not ruffled too many feathers in the mainstream Indian media. Who cares for some lousy journalist of a lousy newspaper of a lousy state in the back of beyond? The same people who write tomes to condemn insurgency, militancy, terrorism... cannot even spare a word to denounce the (Manipur Chief Minister) Nipamacha Singhs of the Northeast."

It is also worth reflecting here on the issue that stirred Manipur up for all of last month. The question of integration is critical to the Meitei concept of Manipur and their civilisational existence. The Meiteis are an ancient community of the Northeast and Vaishnavites by faith. Every morning, a soothing sight awaits visitors to Imphal and other towns in the valley as hundreds of Meiteis, freshly bathed, go to temples with sandal paste on their foreheads and a little drop of it on the bridge of the nose. The hills, by comparison, are populated largely by Nagas and, in some parts, by members of the Kuki tribe as well as Paites. The latter are distant kin of the Mizos further south but have clan connections across the border in Myanmar. For many years, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (now rechristened Nagalim by this militant group), which has sought independence from India, has also wanted to incorporate parts of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh into a Greater Nagaland.

This plan has drawn the fiercest opposition from the Meiteis of Manipur for this former kingdom's traditional territorial boundaries are sought to be changed, with the hills of the state going to this vision of a larger Naga territory. Time after time, Manipuri leaders, from all political hues, have warned against any deal with the NSCN (I-M) that barters away parts of their state's land. Feelings still continue to run high in Manipur about the way the Government of India ceded land to Burma (now Myanmar) from Manipur, without consulting the State Government.

What the Naga leadership in exile has not understood until this day is that, despite all its flaws, India is still a democracy. Any major decision like the sundering of a state cannot be done without the consent of the state's legislature, apart from the sanction of its government. New Delhi too will tread very cautiously about signalling that it supports such a breakup on its own without the clear approval of the concerned state. One ran into this mental roadblock in a discussion last year with Rh. Raising, then the "Home Minister" of the "Government of the Peoples Republic of Nagaland." Raising declared that the Naga demands for more territory were based on history and tradition. To which one responded by saying that there had to be a common approach to some of these problems, instead of viewing them through one particular periscope. Raising kept insisting on Naga rights; it was then pointed out that it was only after the British came at the end of the 19th century that a semblance of Naga unity evolved until then they comprised fiercely independent tribes.

The "Republic" of the GPRN exists outside of Nagaland, in a network of offices in South-East Asia and through the good offices of NGOs in Europe. Of course, it continues to hold sway over the minds and hearts of many Nagas, both in Nagaland and Manipur and has a physical presence in the Naga hills as well with bases and offices (without the GRPN logo). Their writ runs extensively. Thus, while the Government of India does not levy taxes on the hill states of the Northeast, civil servants in Nagaland and Manipur pay "taxes" from their salary to this group almost as a tradition as well as to other insurgent groups.

To the Meiteis, the demand of the NSCN (I-M) for more territory is their worst nightmare and they are prepared to resist. Indeed, the insurgent groups in the plains of Manipur too are opposed to any breakup of the state.The leaders of the Nagas, especially the charismatic General Secretary of the NSCN (I-M), Thieungelang Muivah, now in a Thai prison on charges of entering Thailand illegally, would do well to consider these feelings, instead of sticking to a hardline stand. Surely, in the Northeast of their dreams and ours Nagas, Meiteis, Kukis and Assamese and all other communities will need to live together, instead of being constantly at one another's throats. The latter is a tiresome, violent and embittering process, of which everyone has had enough.