This story first appeared in epaper.assamtribune.com
It’s been over 40 days since the first volley of trouble raged in Manipur on May 3 last. That there is complete mishandling of the situation is evident to the discerning eye. In normal circumstances such an internal crisis in any state with large scale violence that has displaced nearly 40,000 people and claimed at least over a hundred lives should have been put under President’s Rule. The centre should have taken the entire administration in its hands and contained the trouble mongers. Instead what happened was that at least two extremist outfits from Imphal – the Arambai Tengol and the Meetei Leepun were given a free run to commit violence on unsuspecting tribal families living in the Imphal valley. The arms and ammunition from the police training centre and police stations were ‘allowed’ to be looted and used against the tribals. And later Chief Minister N Biren Singh requests those who looted the arms to return them and avoid legal action. Isn’t it a heinous crime to steal arms belonging to an arm of the state that is tasked with the maintenance of law and order? If people get away even after stealing police ammunition then it can well be imagined how safe the tribals would feel in Imphal. None of them want to go back there. And their only mode of retaliation is by using road blockade as the only stratagem.
By now we are familiar with the circumstances leading to the flare-up on May 3. Reports from Manipur and the interview of Pramot Singh with Karan Thapar suggest that the Meiteis were expecting things to take the turn they have. Things have been simmering over what is seen by the tribals as intrusion into their “homeland,” when the state decided to turn the community-owned forests into “reserved forests,” for the purpose of creating wildlife sanctuaries. It was necessary to create a narrative that several thousand acres of these forests were used for poppy cultivation by the Kuki-Chin-Zomi tribes. It was important to also sell the perception that poppy being the raw material for heroin – a potent drug- was being smuggled across the region and the country from Manipur – more specifically Churachandpur, the abode of the Kuki tribes with a smattering of Meiteis also living there in the manner that the tribals could settle in Imphal.
That the Meiteis are exasperated by the fact that they are not allowed under Article 371© to buy land in the hills because they are non-Scheduled Tribes (Hindus, having adopted Vaishnavism during the rule of the Maharajahs when Manipur was a kingdom), whereas the tribals from the hills are able to buy land in Imphal valley has been evident. They see this as an injustice perpetrated by the British policy of divide and rule which was not corrected by the Indian state after Maharaja Budhachandra of Manipur signed the Instrument of Accession to the Indian state on August 11, 1947 followed by the Instrument of Merger in September 1949.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah only deigned to come to Manipur after the Karnataka Assembly elections were done and dusted. He arrived in Manipur on May 29 which is 26 days after the murder, mayhem and arson that destroyed entire lives and livelihoods. Amit Shah stayed in Manipur for 3 days and called for a halt to the killings but the two warring factions never paid heed. While the Union Home Minister was visiting Kangpokpi killings were happening within a few kilometres away. So the visit of the Union Home Minister had no impact and people know only too well that they are not a priority for the BJP Government in Delhi.
The fact that Prime Minister Modi has till date not said a word to assuage the pain and sufferings of the people of Manipur tells us the degree to which he is willing to invest his emotions in a part of what he calls the Ashta Lakshmi or the eight manifestations of Goddess Lakshmi. Had the same level of violence erupted in Jammu and Kashmir the Prime Minister would have taken the first flight out because he would then be able to make political capital out of the tragedy by blaming bete-noire Pakistan. Unfortunately, in Manipur no foreign hand could be blamed, albeit what happened was nothing short of a civil war leaving so many people as refugees fleeing their own land and taking shelter in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and some in distant Delhi.
The video of BJP MLA Vunzagin Valte a Kuki who was attacked by a mob after he left Chief Minister Biren Singh’s office on May 4, is spine-chilling. Valte and his driver, also a Kuki, were taken to a community centre while his security guard, a Meitei, was allowed to go free. Both Valte and his driver were tortured. Valte was first stunned and then hit on the skull by a sharp object. According to Valte’s family members he and his driver were tortured for hours together and were left for dead. No one knows who took the two to hospital. Valte was airlifted to Delhi that same night at the behest of CM Biren Singh but he is now paralysed and unable to speak or walk. The driver died as a result of the wounds. The personal security officer reported the incident to the police as a result of which an FIR was filed.
This level of targeted violence by one community against another is unbelievable. It shows that there is complete breakdown of law and order in Manipur despite the presence of a huge contingent of uniformed personnel from the army and para military forces. It is a matter of grave concern that the Central Government is just turning a blind eye to the sufferings of people in Manipur and behaving as if things have returned to normal. Perhaps the national government is burdened by having to deal with their MP, Brij Bhushan who the women wrestlers have decided to take on for his sexual misdemeanours. And now we have the farmers protesting at the gates of Delhi demanding a better deal. Clearly the BJP Government in the centre has a lot on its plate at the moment. It has not even had the opportunity to digest the Karnataka debacle.
Sometimes the medicine is worse than the cure and that is the prescription for Manipur. An unwieldy peace committee is notified where the Chief Minister who is the prime mover of the entire bloodbath is a member. This is a slap on the face of those who see him as the one who masterminded the entire sequence of events by allowing the Arambai Tengol and Meetei Leepun a free run of the land. The leader of the first group says he worships Biren Singh. Its easy to deduce then as to who was the gas-lighter in this case. A peace committee where the alleged perpetrators are members is a non-starter even as many of the tribal groups and individuals have pulled out because they were not even consulted before being included in the committee.
As of today the situation in Manipur is fraught, hence quick-fix solutions of forming a government-led peace committee that is not trusted by large sections of the population, and expecting it to bring about long term solutions, reveals the Government of India’s vacuum in understanding the complexities of India’s North East.
This is a region where nation-building is still ‘work in progress.’