Ethnic clashes have been reaching their zenith. Governance stands paralysed, state has to reinvent its identity as situation has deteriorated beyond hope. The total failure to resolve the political deadlock as the government is still engaged in celebrations for winning over third time, State and the Centre both are now well known for their inertia. No response is seen coming in all these seventeen months despite the horror staring at the masses, both physically and emotionally. Basic issues have grown ominous since no respite has come either from state government or from the Centre.

Ethnic divide could have been resolved if the initiatives could have been taken in time, but they were left to harden further and divide is almost permanent. Manipur is torn and destroyed. A buffer zone has come into existence, between hill regions dominated by Kukis and valley where Meiteis are powerful. Sixty thousand are displaced, and they are forced to live in camps where life continues with scant amenities. It is also a fact that state itself has started its own atrocities. There are 60,000 Central police force stationed in this most beautiful hill region and the valley. People are aware that there is hardly any end to their woes.

As the unrest in Manipur continues unabated in north-east India, authorities remain quiet. With a population of three million, Manipur, a state in north-east India, has been witness to continued violence among the tribes. In the recent flare up, many more have been killed. More than thousand have been reported injured. There have been set up more relief camps and people in their own country have turned refugee looking for shelter, security, food and medicine. Several thousands have taken shelter in neighboring states. Some have come to Delhi also. The unrest started on May 3, 2023, with the solidarity rally by various tribal groups underlining the issues of social status and tribal rights. It provoked distrust in communities especially between Meities and Kukies.

In fact the state is burning for all these months, and yet it does not qualify to receive any concern from the regime. The citizens are left to fend for themselves. They do neither receive any help, nor any sympathy. The devastation that the Hindutva has wreaked in Manipur knows no bound. Its concept of Hindu nationalism has made the state weaker and nationalism hollow. This otherisation of non-Hindus has pushed the masses towards fragmentation, instead of common unity.

There is in fact no space for negotiations and dialogue to resolve the political issues. There is also a growing fear of external forces getting involved in the conflict which will affect national security. The reality is that one community cannot enter into the other’s territory.

This was admitted even by the army chief General Upendra Dwivedi recently. Talking to a news website, he said Manipur has “become a battle of narratives” over time and battlelines in the state are “getting hardened”. And yet the Manipur government is behaving as if it is merely a question of insurgency – a fact reflected in the latest state government decision to extend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act for another six months.

There is every possibility that instead of resolving the crisis, attempts may be made to revive insurgency at a higher scale. A process may be initiated to open the way for a renewed insurgency in the hill areas which can lead to the army having to be deployed to combat the insurgency.

It was chief minister Biren Singh who kept encouraging one community against the other. What began with the demand of ST status for the one community and the backslash from the other community was exacerbated by the partisan role of chief minister. It is Biren Singh’s refusal to adopt an impartial approach as chief minister, which is the root cause for the problem.

The Modi government and the central BJP leadership, despite knowing fully well the divisive role of the chief minister, has chosen to stick with him. At the political level, the BJP and the RSS prefer to stoke the flames of Meitei extremist chauvinism as seen by the fact that the founder of the extremist outfit Arambai Tenggol, L Sanajaoba, was made a Rajya Sabha MP. The long impasse has only strengthened the hands of extremists in both communities.

The abandonment of the Centre’s responsibility towards Manipur is made all the more stark by the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not thought it fit to visit Manipur even once in the past seventeen months. What is required is for central government to directly intervene and start the process of political negotiations with major ethnic groups and to create conditions for peace and normalcy, where the rights of citizens of all communities are safeguarded. If the festering sore in Manipur is not healed, it will have wide ranging repercussions for the North-East. (IPA Service)