Quo Vadis, Manipur?

Anto Akkara - August 2023

Imphal - Hardly any state in India has undergone in the last decade the chaos, lawlessness and suffering that has been heaped on hapless population of Manipur due to the abject failure of the state machinery amid bloody ethnic conflict. Hundreds of charred vehicles even on the road, commercial buildings and skeletons of torched houses could be seen as one traveled to Churuchandpur in the south, across Imphal valley and to Kangpopki hill district in the north.

The unrest in Manipur, Chief Minister Biren Sing admitted on May 21 was “due to security and intelligence lapses of the state government and stated that the government is ready to take all the blame.”

Amid the worsening situation, Home Minister Amit Shah, during his May end visit to the state - four weeks after the bloodshed began, announced several measures including ten lakh ex-gratia for the dependents of those who killed.

But sadly, even as the Home Minister made these assurances and appealed for peace meeting cross sections, guns-sounds rent the air not only in Imphal valley. Villages around Sunulu town continued to smolder with houses and churches being burnt while nuns and priests fled for safety amid belligerent Meitei outfits engaging in gun fight with Assam Rifles soldiers.

Over 50 more deaths were added during the weekend to the conservative government death toll of 70 from the month-long ethnic conflict ahead of Amit Shah landing in Manipur on May 29. However, leading daily like Shillong Times had put the death-toll at 160 as on May 10 under the headline “Manipur will never be the me again” cautioning that the toll ‘may rise rapidly’. That raises the question if dependents of all those who perished in the conflict would get the 10 lakhs promised by the Home Minister and five lakhs assured by the Chief Minister.

Amit Shah skips contentious claims

Prior to landing in Manipur, the Home Minister made a categorical statement in Guwahati on May 26 while laying the foundation of the National Forensic Sciences University’s Guwahati Campus: The clashes in Manipur, he said, was “because of a court judgement… We have to find a way forward through dialogue and peace. Injustice should not be done to anyone…. This is the policy of the Modi government.”

This declaration was a rebuttal of the claim that the BJP government of Manipur told Supreme Court on May 17 that “the genesis of ethnic violence in the state was the crackdown on illegal Myanmar migrants, illicit poppy cultivation and drug business in the hills…”. “Agitation against possible grant of ST status to Meitei community was a ruse and the protest was against the crack down,” claimed Manipur High Court Bar Association before the Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud.

This claim had been parroted by dozens saffron-friendly news outlets and web- portals, setting the saffron narrative on the ethnic conflict on the nation as internet remained suspended in Manipur.

However, as the Home Minister hinted, there can be no denial that the Manipur conflagration was triggered by the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, protesting against the controversial March 27 order of Manipur High Court for inclusion of the Manipur’s majority ethnic group – the Meitei community that accounts for over 52 percent of the state’s 3.8 million people – in the ST category.

The fact that the Home Minister desisted from the endorsing the contentious reasons put forward by the Manipur BJP government for the conflict displayed political wisdom at a time the bloody conflict has polarized the state on ethnic lines.

However, BJP chief minister Biren Singh remained adamant on his government claim in Supreme Court on the eve of Amit Shah’ arrival in Manipur – declaring on May 28 that “the latest clashes were not between rival communities, but between Kuki militants and security forces.”

The Manipur situation, the Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan told reporters on May 30 in Pune that “Unfortunately, this particular situation in Manipur has nothing to do with counter-insurgency and is primarily a clash between two ethnicities,” appearing to contradict BJP chief minister.

Contradicting the embattled chief Minister further, Sushant Singh - a former joint director with the Intelligence Bureau – was quoted by The Telegraph that the Chief Minister’s comment was “uncalled for and appeared to vilify all Kukis as terrorists.”

“This is nothing but vilifying a community and giving credence to the narrative of the Meiteis who have been calling the Kukis illegal immigrants. This is not expected from a chief minister of a state that is burning amid ethnic violence,” reiterated the veteran intelligence officer.

Deep polarization on ethnic lines

“Kukis have left the (Imphal) Valley and Meitei’s have left the Hills.... The separation is complete. There is nothing more to separate,” Wilson Lalam Hangshing, general secretary of the Kuki People’s Alliance, supporting the ruling BJP regime in Manipur told The Wire in an interview with Karan Thapar.

This reporter noticed several instances of this unprecedented division among the majority Meitei people and the Kukis. Hundreds of Kuki houses, mansions and businesses had been burnt in Imphal. Similarly, this reporter witnessed commercial buildings of the Meiteis in downtown Churuchandpur, 70kms south of Imphal, being razed to ground with bulldozer. (In trying to document this wanton act, my Canon Digital SLR camera was destroyed. See Box item.)

Women on both sides parrot political agenda:

Even women on both sides of the ethnic divide have been parroting the political stance of their clan.

I hoped to find graphic details of people’s suffering when a banner headline in local daily read: “Women market representatives seek Governor's intervention for peace and normalcy in Manipur” - about their travails of lost business among amid extended curfews and internet shutdown paralyzing normal life altogether. The hapless people had no window to share their grievances to the outside world due to internet ban; hundreds were lamenting loss of online jobs and students struggled without internet access as they prepared for the Civil Service exam. The short supply of essential items and sky rocketing of prices was manifest with petrol being sold at three times of normal price in bottles in front of closed petrol pumps in Imphal. With commodity supplies crippled by the bloody ethnic conflict since May 3, the aam admi were flocking to even church centers pleading for staple food of rice and other items.

But the women marketers had ‘greater priorities’ when they met the Governor as manifested in their press statement. During the meeting, the news reports said: “the women representatives expressed their opposition to the demand for a separate administration, stating that it goes against the territorial integrity and unity of the people of Manipur. They urged the governor to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to address the issue of illegal immigrants in the state. Additionally, they requested the governor to ensure that the Suspension of Operation (SoO) groups remain confined to their designated camps and called for measures to open and lift the economic blockade along the Imphal-Dimapur National Highway, enabling the regular flow of essential commodities.”

Next day on May 22, Kuki women under the banner of ‘Indigenous Women’s Forum’ held a dharna at Kangpopki – tribal stronghold that is an hour’s drive to the north of Imphal - with banners: "Why is the central government still silent when our people are Killed, raped and our houses and churches burnt?"

Questioning why (Meitei vigilante groups) Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun were not declared as an outlawed organization even after substantial number of government issued service weapons were confiscated from their possession…. There will be no peace and harmony unless we are separated from the valley people as we have lost faith upon this government as well as upon our neighbouring Meitei community," reported the ‘People's Chronicle’.

As this reporter travelled to the Kangpopki district, there was a stunning sight at the district border. Less than a hundred metres from the army check post, dozens of Kuki women were stopping and verifying identity of those in vehicles and checking their baggage being carried into the Kuki area. On return too, the Kuki women cadres were doing it while army personal nearby seemed helpless. (Taking photos even with mobile could have landed me in trouble and so, I desisted from the adventure.)

Apart from that, trucks coming in on the Dimapur-Imphal national way had to wait for days to get the green signal from Kuki cadres manning the mountains to enter the Imphal Valley besides the army.

The local media has elaborated on the vertical divide even among medical staff, government officials and police officers fleeing rival areas for their safety. The government too fanned the flame of ethnic division with senior police officials holding key positions transferred to prevent them for exercising executive power over rival communities.

As if in an exodus, convoys of refugees from both sides were moved to safer areas by the army during the initials days of the conflagration.

The deep mistrust and fear came to the fore when this reporter requested senior Meitei contacts to take me to relief camps of Meitei refugees shifted to Imphal Valley from the Kuki-dominated hills. But they pleaded helpless: “It will be dangerous for us and to you also as a Christian.”

That explained why a leading daily sent not a Hindu or a Christian but a Muslim correspondent to report on Manipur.

Such an unprecedented situation made the leading Manipur daily ‘The Sangai Express’ come out with an editorial on May 24 cautioning: “The longer the situation is allowed to prolong, (the) greater the chances of pent-up anger exploding and nothing will be more unfortunate than this."

Impunity & hardly any reports of arrests:

Despite the unprecedented bloodshed in Manipur’s history, conspicuous by absence in the media was reports of arrests of culprits. With Manipur chief minister being widely accused of supporting the Meitei vigilante groups, the situation has been deteriorating steadily from the beginning.

“We do not know what is our future and what to do next as the violence continues and I cannot go back to join my government job?” a government official (pleading anonymity) who fled Imphal and reached Guwahati with his family, told me from a relief camp on Meghalaya border with Guwahati.

When a Meitei mob attacked their Kuki tribal village near the residence of Chief Minister itself, he said the Christians ran into the nearby camp. “We have no permission to let you in,” army officials told them politely.

Fearing imminent attack by huge Meitei mob branding deadly weapons, the men among 60 the Kuki families broke the fencing of the army camp and managed get the families in. When the Kuki refugee showed me videos of their houses going up in flames (videos taken from the army camp), I was wondering about the pathetic state of Indian democracy in Manipur.

Later, the army moved these families to safer location. Then, like over 10,000 Kuki refugees who have fled Manipur itself - apart from 40,000 displaced internally - including Meiteis in Kuki areas, they family moved to Dimapur in Nagaland before reaching the refugee camp near Guwahati, run by a charitable Christian.

A PG student who reached Guwahati by air after fleeing for life from Manipur university narrated how two Kuki girl students who decided to hide under the bed of their private hostel room were raped and killed.

Hindutva agenda being pushed under cover of ethnic conflict

‘The Organizer’ - the English mouthpiece of the RSS - came out with a shocking editorial on May 16 alleging that the bloodshed in Manipur under the BJP rule was carried out ‘with the support of the churches’.

The wild allegation was dismissed as ‘baseless’. “Church does not support or organize violence,” asserted Archbishop Dominic Lumon, head of the Catholic church in Manipur.

This outlandish claim can be only seen as typical Sangh Parivar strategy of cover-up – to divert attention from the fact that over 300 churches had been torched, desecrated or destroyed across Manipur under the cover of the ongoing ethnic conflict.

So, if the Churches are portrayed as the ‘villain’ behind the conflict, the systematically and clinically executed vandalism by the Meitei vigilante groups like Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun could be covered up at least in the vast saffron friendly media. Indeed, ‘Truth is the first casualty in war’, goes the adage.

247 Meitei churches destroyed in 36-hours!

An unnoticed dimension that has been ignored or escaped media attention during the worst two nights of May 3-4 was the torching and destruction of 247 churches belonging to different denominations of the Meitei Christians alone - besides 50-odd other churches.

In 36 hours, Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun (more virulent and violent outfits compared to saffron foot soldiers of Viswa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal) carried out clinical operation targeting the churches across the sprawling Imphal valley that houses 90 percent of 38 lakh population of Manipur.

Arambai Tenggol & Meitei Leepun:

The more organized Arambai Tenggol (named after a traditional darting weapon of the Meiteis) along with the other group enjoy, according to secular critics, full patronage of Maharaja Leishemba Sanajaoba, titular king of Manipur, and BJP member of Rajya Sabha, along with chief minister Biren Singh. The outfits had even hired bulldozers to pull down the Meitei churches as they consider Christianity as threat to the indigenous ‘Meitei culture’.

These black uniformed groups had initially looted arms police stations which police officials say 1,000 but others estimate to be 2000. Amid the BJP-government making half-hearted pleas for the complete return of the looted weapons, May 28 witnessed another huge looting of police arms by the Meitei vigilante groups.

Indeed, behind the synchronized attacks on the Meitei Christians, there is certainly ‘a method in the madness’, to quote Shakespearean dictum from ‘The Hamlet’. Not a single Meitei Christian has been Killed despite the synchronized simultaneous attacks on 247 churches carried out with meticulous planning - to avoid media attention. Sadly, it has remained like that so far.

Kandhamal Modus operandi repeated:

The modus operandi of the Sangh Parivar displayed in Kandhamal in 2008 is being repeated Manipur in copycat manner. Pastors of destroyed or damaged churches have been made to sign affidavits that they will not return.

On the last weekend of May, I was informed by a prominent Meitei Christian leader that a pastor who went to file FIR against the desecration of his church was not only threatened by police. They called the Meitei vigilante group who even proceeded to destroy completely destroy the damaged church. There are several parallels with Kandhamal pogram in Manipur that will be analyzed later in detail.

St Paul’s church desecration:

The sprawling Pastoral Training Centre of the Catholic Church near the airport Imphal was raided four times from May 3 rd night with the mob looking for ethnic tribals and verifying each time the identity of the 50 inmates undergoing catechism training.

While half a dozen vehicles in the campus were torched during each raid with even chicken, fish, and piggery farm also emptied, the centre was gutted along with the St Paul’s parish church in the campus next day with the hapless director and parish priest Fr Isaac Honsan remaining a mute spectator throughout.

During the fourth raid on the second day, the hooligans carried cooking gas cylinders from the Pastoral Training Center, put together all the pews in the church and set fire inside the church.

“I can never forget that experience of witnessing the church go up in flames,” said Fr Honsan when I visited the charred church and the nearby Pastoral Training Centre.

The priest watched the desecration and torching of the church over May 3 and 4 with police never responding to his repeated plea for help.

“Such organized attacks cannot just happen unless it was premediated and planned. The targets of attack also smacked of fanatic elements out to disrupt the existence of Christianity under the pretext of preservation of culture,” a senior church official remarked.

Though the police had never rushed to the spot despite repeated desperate plea, I found it quite amusing to find half a dozen of policemen relaxing on the church stage in the open ground two weeks after.

Modi’s Silence & PIB cover up

‘The nation wants to know’, to quote TV motormouth Arnab Goswami’s pet phrase, why Prime Minister Narendra Modi who tweets promptly even on minor mishaps like train derailment or boat capsize – has remained silent on the Manipur bloodshed and mayhem. The Prime Minister who did not hesitate to raise attack on Hindu temples in Australia with his counterpart during his visit to Australia in March has not uttered a word on Manipur.

In typical media management under his beck and call, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) issued a ‘press note’ that was carried by the Manipur media: “Manipur and North East – PM’s favorite on MKB” (Man Ki Bath). The PIB article emphasized that “Prime Minister Modi has made it a priority to celebrate the vibrant culture and linguistic diversity of the North-east.” So, one may presume, that the bloodshed would not fall under this priority category.

It is sad and shocking that PM Modi who has visited North-east 60 times since 2014 when he adorned the mantle of Prime Minister had no time to visit Manipur when it was bleeding – in its darkest hour.

For three weeks, since Manipur went up in flames, no central leader from the ruling BJP either bothered to visit Manipur. In fact, the entire BJP top brass including Modi and Home Minister Shah were busy electioneering and roadshows in Karnataka while black fumes of burnt business establishments, churches, houses and vehicles created volcanic smog over Imphal and other places.

NB: Names of vulnerable sources have been deliberately withheld to ensure their safety.

(Anto Akkara has been a journalist with Indian and international media for three decades. For his ‘stellar work’ on Kandhamal conflagration in Odisha state, Akkara was conferred the prestigious Titus Brandsma Award for Journalism 2013, instituted in memory of a Dutch journalist St Titus Brandsma).

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