Manipur incident: Fact-Finding Team lays claim on BJP’s double-engine government and “squarely to blame”.
Manipur incident: Fact-Finding Team lays claim on BJP’s double-engine government and “squarely to blame”.
Manipur ugly incident of two tribal women paraded naked and the violence that sparked off, a fact-finding team last month visited Manipur and claim that regardless intense divisions amidst the Meiteis and Kukis, it is the firm belief of both communities that the government has played a key role in the state’s ethnic violence.
In the backdrop of the broad consensus across different communities, the government, both at the Centre and the State, played a principal role in the lead up to the violence and the continuance of the violence for such long time. This is the team’s report released last week.
The report goes on to reveal that the Meitei community has “broadly aligned” itself with the state government and pins a greater share of responsibility on the Union government, and that the Kuki community finds the state government more culpable instead.
The eight-member team that visited Manipur between August 10 and 14 was constituted by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation.
Investigating the views of the two communities for the cause of the violence, the report spills the beans that according to the Kukis, there was a “conscious attempt” to trigger violence by Meitei chauvinist groups, who torched the Anglo-Kuki War memorial at Churachandpur.
It is also the belief of most Kukis that the attacks on them were pre-planned and orchestrated by the Arambai Tenggol and the Meitei Leepun with full support of the state government. It came at a time when the Union government was days away from declaring status to the hilly terrain of Manipur.
A section of the media had earlier reported how the Union home affairs ministry planned to finalise a peace accord along the lines of the sixth schedule – which provides for autonomous territories with Kuki insurgent groups before the ethnic violence put paid to these plans.
The ‘big’ question now is what’s behind the ‘ugly’ parade of two Manipur tribal women and the Violence thereof and why stopping. This obviously poses a ‘test’ for PM Modi.
The fact-finding team’s report then says that for the Meiteis, the larger reason behind the ethnic violence was the Kukis’ backlash to three state government policies: its “clamp down on illegal infiltration of Kukis from Myanmar, the attempts to stop illegal forest encroachments by Kukis and the war waged on drugs by the state government targeting Kuki poppy cultivators.”
“Underlying this narrative of the conflict, is the strong belief that Meiteis are original inhabitants of Manipur, while the Kukis are late-comers,” it adds.
It also says that the economic disparity between the two communities was “accentuated by the lopsided and valley-centric policies of the BJP government”, referring to Manipur’s Meitei-majority Imphal Valley.
On visit to the relief camps in the state, over 60,000 people were displaced as a result of the ethnic violence and the team found that notwithstanding varying levels of state support for Meitei and Kuki-run camps, hurdles to accessing nutritious food are present across the board.
The report also says that It is a matter of grave concern that the situation persists even three months following the outbreak of the violence.
The team also makes it known that even as the state government facilitated the admission of displaced Meitei students into schools and colleges near their relief camps, the education of Kuki students displaced or otherwise is “under serious crisis.
Some Kuki students have moved to the rest of India for pursuing their higher studies after finding themselves unable to access their Imphal-based universities.
With regard to the demands by either community following the violence, the report notes that the Kuki community has “taken a clear stand that a separate administration is the only way out.
The Meitei on the other hand, demands the withdrawal of the Suspension of Operations agreement, protection of the territorial integrity of Manipur and strict action against forest encroachments, Kuki militancy and poppy cultivation and the demand for a separate state to be dropped.
The team has also recorded a displaced Meitei person’s demand for the removal of the Assam Rifles from the state.
It is learnt that theMeitei civil society organisations have accused the Assam Rifles of siding with the Kukis during the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur.
As for who is responsible for the violence, the team finds the BJP’s double-engine government “squarely to blame”.
The resolution of this crisis ought to be considered within the broader context of restoration of peace in the state, and fixation of accountability on the twin-BJP governments.
The resolution also alleges that accountability must start from the top, and Chief Minister Biren Singh, who has not only overseen but has fed into the polarising narrative that culminated in such unprecedented violence and segregation must tender his resignation.
It also claimed that the double-engine government was following a policy of “divide and rule”, having “orchestrated an ethnic divide which they will communally exploit”.
It also revealed that this government has no legitimacy whatsoever to continue.
News Edit K.V.Raman
