It is not always easy to see what is best in the face of an unflagging onslaught. The various rebel groups operating in Manipur seem to have intensified their activity in spite of the government’s strengthened counter-insurgency moves. From self-rule to secession, their demands are varied. What they share is the belief that killing uniformed personnel and civilians, abduction, extraction of ransom and levies — even from the contributions devotees make to temples, demanding funds, support and shelter from non-political villagers, gunning down migrant labourers, taking the law into their own hands by ‘executing’ anyone they believe to be corrupt, loyal to the State or a ‘betrayer’ and so on would gain them their respective dreams. So the chief minister, Okram Ibobi Singh, trying to run a state in which the people are insecure, unhappy and angry, may find it natural to arm villagers for their self-defence if they so wish. The state government has decided to give out guns and provide training to about 500 people in two villages, Heirok in Thoubal district and Lilong Chajing in Imphal West district. This looks like the logical extension of Mr Singh’s earlier remark that for Manipur to live, the militants must die.

But these plans to create a Salwa Judum-like situation have given rise to serious objections and a lot of controversy. Non-governmental organizations and civil society groups are trying to build up popular resistance to the government’s decision. They feel that arming civilians, even with special training, will merely encourage more bloodshed, and set off tensions within the same ethnic groups. It does not matter that the villagers asked for arms, reacting against a recent series of murders in their area. A recent visit by a high-level team from the Centre to assess the situation in Manipur shows that the Union government is worried. The increase in militant activity in a border state bodes ill for national as well as internal security. Ironically, the worse the situation is perceived to be, the more distant becomes the possibility that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act will be lifted, as many in Manipur wish. And while Irom Sharmila fasts for her eighth year in protest against the AFSPA, legislators are being discovered giving shelter to outlawed extremists. Mr Singh is not in an enviable position. He has to find ways other than arming a village or two.