Now that the hurly-burly is done and the battle fought – time will tell whether it was lost or won – it is time to rivet the nation’s attention on Manipur, the traumatised state in the north-east. That Manipur is clamouring for an end to months-long ethnic bloodletting became clear when massive peaceful protests were held across the state 24 June coinciding with the first Lok Sabha session of the new NDA Gov’t. Both the valley-dominant Meitei community and the hilldominant Kuki-Zo tribes, who have been fighting each other since May 2023, took to the streets.
The so-called double engine BJP governments at the Centre and the state miserably failed to stop the bitter and brutal ethnic strife in Manipur because of the partisan handling of the conflict by the state Chief Minister N Biren Singh belonging to the Meitei community. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his intent clear by not visiting the trouble-torn state even for once when women were gang-raped, men killed and homes set on fire. The communal divide was clear with the ruling party siding with one group and letting down the other. In the just concluded Lok Sabha polls the people of Manipur punished the BJP for its obvious neglect of their problems by ensuring defeat of the party’s candidates in both the parliamentary seats of the state.
The problem stems from the fact that the general category Meiteis want to be included in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category as they claim to be essentially and historically a tribe. This is but a ploy to grab land. The Kuki tribals, on the other hand, want a separate administration or “Kukiland” carved out of Manipur. They have been agitating for it for decades, citing the need for a homeland for the scattered tribes who share ethnic ties with tribes in neighbouring Mizoram and Myanmar’s Chin State.
The only silver lining visible now is that a common demand of both the groups in the 24 June protests was the call to end the violence that has been dragging on for over a year.
In the state capital Imphal valley, hundreds of women marched in silence holding placards asking the Centre to remove some central forces that they alleged have not done enough to check the growing menace of Kuki insurgents. The protesters said the Manipur issue should be discussed in Parliament, and resolved as soon as possible before more lives are lost.
In Kuki-dominated areas, including Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts, hundreds of people gathered to participate in marches and speeches by Kuki MLAs and civil society leaders. They urged the Centre to create a “separate administration,” or a Union Territory, by merging all Kuki-dominated areas in Manipur. There are 10 Kuki MLAs, including some from the ruling BJP, in Manipur’s 60-member Assembly.
The two-year-old Churachandpur-based Kuki organization Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) in a statement has announced it would lead a nonviolent protest to demand the creation of a Union Territory for the Kukis. Other Kuki and Zo tribe groups have endorsed the ITLF’s call.
The ethnic strife, that began last year has, so far, claimed over 220 lives, while nearly 50,000 people have been internally displaced. The conflict assumed brutal proportions after armed militias joined both sides. Things went out of control after the state government failed to recover a huge cache of arms and ammunition looted from the constabulary. These were used in ethnic cleansing. Manipur watchers said the administration’s soft corner for the majority group was responsible for the situation drifting out of control.
The people of Manipur seem to have spoken their mind in the Lok Sabha poll. They want the government at the Centre not to continue the status quo, but respond to their call for change of attitude at the Centre and leadership in the state.