• Dr. Ajoy Kumar

Manipur, in Northeast India, has been in the grip of violence for the last two months. According to government figures, almost 150 people have lost their lives in this violence, thousands have been injured and more than 50,000 citizens of the state have had to flee. Of these, only 13,000 people could be shifted to safer places. More than 600 people have taken shelter in Assam. Peace was restored in this border state after decades of efforts by the Central and the State governments of Congress, but this state also eventually fell victim to the divisive policies of the BJP. The violence that broke out in Manipur has exposed the failure of the Central Government and the present State Government.

It is necessary to understand the background of Manipur. The country became independent in 1947 and when the British left India, then Manipur was ruled by King Bodhchandra. With the efforts of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Prime Minister of independent India, Manipur became a part of the Republic of India from October 15, 1949, following the merger treaty signed on September 21, 1949. When the Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950, Manipur joined the Union of India as a Part ‘C’ state under a Chief Commissioner. Later, a regional council was formed there. With effect from September 19, 1969, the status of the Administrator of Manipur was raised from Chief Commissioner to Lieutenant Governor. On January 21, 1972, Manipur attained full statehood and a 60-member Legislative Assembly was constituted.

There are 16 districts in Manipur with a population of more than 34 lakhs and the total land area here is divided into Imphal Valley and Hill Districts. People of the Meitei community live in large numbers in the Imphal Valley. The hill districts are inhabited by the Naga and Kuki tribes. The population of the Meitei community is close to 53 percent of the total population of the state, while 40 percent of the population is of the Naga and Kuki tribes. 7 percent of the population in the state belongs to other communities which also include the Muslim citizens of the state. There are about 60 tribes of Naga and Kuki tribals living in the hilly areas of Manipur and most of these tribes follow Christianity. On the other hand, people of the Meitei community living in the valley of Manipur believe in Hinduism.

After the statehood of Manipur, all the communities there were generally living in harmony. The reason for the violence and extremism there was different, which was being operated by anti-India elements. The Congress governments tried for decades and finally succeeded in establishing peace in Manipur, due to their policy efforts. The people of Manipur joined the mainstream of the country. The people of the Meitei community made their way into politics, jobs and other economic activities, while the Naga, Kuki and other tribes adopted the means of earning their livelihood in the mountainous areas. Congress governments worked on the strategy of providing every possible opportunity to all the communities of Manipur.

After the year 2012, some anti-national elements started instigating the people of Meitei community to demand inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe community. It is not difficult to guess that who would have been instigating the Meitei community, who actually believe in Hinduism and are peaceful by nature? Since 2012, the Scheduled Tribes Demand Committee of Manipur has been demanding Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community. The petitioners in the High Court said that before Manipur was merged with India in 1949, the Meitei community had got the status of a tribe. On the other hand, Off Manipur Tribal Union believes that if the Meitei community gets the Scheduled Tribe status, they will encroach on their lands. They will also usurp most of the reservation. On the other hand, the Meitei community believes that the opposition to the Scheduled Caste status is just a sham. The Kuki tribes are encroaching on reserved forest areas by making settlements.

In this series, the Manipur High Court, on April 19, 2023, demanded the state government to consider giving Scheduled Caste status to the Meitei community. Against this demand of the court, All-Tribal Students Union of Manipur took out ‘Adivasi Ekta March’ and soon violence broke out. The violence, which engulfed almost the entire state, began on May 03. Although, there had been a tension between the tribals and the majority Meitei community for a long time. Most of the Naga and Kuki tribes practise Christianity, while the majority Meitei consider themselves to be Hindus. Experts are apprehensive that in the near future this violence may also take the form of violence against Christians.

Several incidents of violence took place in the month of June. A furious mob targeted the soldiers of the security forces in the capital, Imphal. Union Minister R.K. Ranjan Singh’s house was ransacked and set on fire. A retired IAS officer’s godown near the royal palace was set on fire. A group of irate mob set fire to the streets in Wangkhei, Prompat and Thangpet. On June 14, 9 people were killed in the Khomeinlok area. In Imphal, the house of BJP female minister Nemcha Kipgen was also burnt down.

Incidents of violence and arson continued to increase in Manipur, but the Modi government did not take any prompt action. For 45 days of ongoing violence in the state, the BJP government at the Center and the state rested with folded hands. Prime Minister Modi has once again proved that he is just another Propaganda-Minister of the country. Manipur kept on burning, but Modi ji was busy with his election tour, giving grandiose speeches. He neither appealed for peace nor made any statement nor even tweeted on Manipur violence. Leaving Manipur burning, Modi ji left for his US tour. Even Home Minister Amit Shah, who considers himself India’s second self-styled Iron Man, did not visit Manipur until 45 days after the violence broke out. No responsible representative of the Central Government went to Manipur. Even no representative of the central government went to see the burnt house of a woman minister of his own government and a BJP MLA admitted in the ICU of a hospital in Imphal. When this is the condition of BJP’s sensitivity towards its own people, then we can understand their thinking towards the general public. The leadership capacity of the Home Minister who could not handle a state (equal to one Lok Sabha of Delhi) can be automatically understood.

During the Manipur violence, the BJP once again followed its old tradition. The BJP leaders, who did not take their moral responsibility for any kind of accident, continued this tradition and the Chief Minister of the BJP government in the state, N. Biren Singh refused to resign from his post in the Manipur case. Gathering a sponsored crowd in his favour, getting slogans raised in his support and then declaring that the public’s faith is with him, he announced not to resign from his post and continue to be the Chief Minister of the state. This is what one can expect from the people of BJP sans morality.

About 45 days after the violence broke out in Manipur, when Amit Shah reached there, the violence intensified even further as soon as he returned. It was incomprehensible to the people whether the Home Minister had gone there to douse the fire of violence or to intensify the same. Nine more people were killed in the latest violence following his visit. The grieving people of Manipur have put up missing pictures of Modi ji at many places, identifying him as a blind and mute man with a 56-inch chest. What a great misfortune it is that the hero who claims to have stopped the Russia-Ukraine war by talking to Putin and Zelensky, does not take care of the people of the state afflicted with violence in his own country! He will be happy to hear cheers from the hired crowd and blind devotees brought from all over the world, but he will not listen to the sorrow of the grieving people of Manipur.

In an exceptionally moving tweet, retired Lt. Gen Nishikant Singh, a resident of Manipur, wrote, “I am an ordinary citizen of India living a retired life in Manipur. This state has now become system-less. Life or property or both of any citizen can be destroyed at any time. The situation here has become synonymous to the situations prevailing in countries like Libya, Nigeria or Syria. It seems that Manipur has been left burning in its own fire.”

For Manipur, currently reeling under ethnic violence, the Chief Minister of neighbouring Assam has come up with a quaint peace proposal to create a buffer zone between the Meiteis in the plains and the Naga and Kuki tribesmen in the mountains. That is, by dividing the state into two parts, the army will be stationed in the middle. It is probably the ringleader of the ‘Tukde-Tukde gang’ who whispered this divisive mantra into the ears of the controversial ‘Bayanveer’.

Another very important fact to be noted in one episode is that during the tenure of the Congress government, the then Home Minister Shri P. Chidambaram and the then Chief Minister of Manipur Shri Ibobi Singh had made an agreement with the Kuki extremist group that they would stop anti-India activities. Manipur was generally peaceful after the ‘Militant Activity Ceasefire’ agreement between the Government of Manipur and the Government of India with these extremist groups.

Surprising revelations are now coming up in the Manipur violence. There are two extremist groups of Meitei community which have claimed that they have got five lakh bullets with the help of BJP leaders. Recently, SS Haokip, the head of the Kuki extremist group, released a video in which he said that he had helped Ram Madhav, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Amit Shah in the 2022 assembly elections. Manipur Legislative Assembly elections were held in January 2022 and in February 2022, Home Minister Amit Shah released Rs. 15 crores 98 lakhs to extremist organizations. Isn’t this whole a case of treason?

The Congress Party has demanded that the entire matter should be investigated by the NIA and Amit Shah, Himanta Viswa Sarma and Ram Madhav should be questioned about their links with various extremist organizations in Manipur. What agreements did these extremist organizations make with the BJP to win the Lok Sabha Elections, 2019 and Manipur Legislative Assembly Elections 2022 and why were these organizations given Rs. 15 crores 98 lakhs after winning the Legislative Assembly elections? Where did these extremist organizations of Manipur get 5 lakh round bullets? Amidst these dire circumstances in Manipur, the BJP government tried in every possible way to prevent the leaders of the opposition from meeting the people there and their efforts to restore peace. In fact, the biggest fear of the BJP’s double engine government is from the Congress leader Shri Rahul Gandhi that he will expose the conspiracies of the BJP and its prominent leaders in this whole episode. Therefore, every possible effort was made to obstruct his visit to Manipur. But showing his sensitivity towards the citizens of Manipur, he went to the camps of the displaced and met the victims and consoled them that he himself and the entire Congress Party of Manipur is standing with the people.

The author is an AICC I/C of Sikkim, Nagaland and Tripura