Notwithstanding the Centre’s and the state government’s denials to the contrary, the recent escalation in Manipur, which occurred more than 15 months after ethnic tensions and violence in the delicate Northeastern state initially broke out, suggests that normalcy is far from returning. With the Meiteis and Kukis battling it out for supremacy, the state is like a boiling cauldron that could explode at any time. Even the presence of the Army and paramilitary troops is ineffective against alleged Kuki insurgents’ drone and rocket attacks. To guarantee that Manipur’s territorial integrity is upheld, it is stated that Chief Minister N Biren Singh has sent a memo to the Central government.
In this regard, he has advocated breaking agreements with extremist organisations.
It looks as though the divide between the two communities cannot be bridged. Thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds of lives have been lost in Manipur since May of last year due to violence, which has shocked both the state and the centre.
It is currently unknown when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to the state to calm the two belligerent communities. Indeed, he made his initial remarks on the matter a few months after a film that revealed horrifying crimes against Kuki women went viral. It was expected that the BJP will lose both of its Manipur seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
The unrest in Manipur dealt a damage to the party’s Northeast outreach, which led to its amazing electoral success in the area. Northeastern states have historically supported the centre-right party in order to benefit from favouritism and patronage, but they may take action to restore their pride if their identity and ethnicity are threatened.
The long-running conflict between the predominantly Christian Kuki and Naga tribes and the Hindu Meiteis is what gave rise to the violence in Manipur. Although the state has deep-rooted ethnic divisions, the High Court’s order to the state administration to suggest to the tribal affairs ministry that the Meiteis be granted Scheduled Tribe status served as the direct cause of the violence. As the state administration, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, began evicting tribal people from their designated forest property, ethnic tensions had also been building for some time. Kuki elders said that hundreds of acres of tribal territory had been designated as protected or restricted forests, forcing the tribe members to leave their ancestral home and become homeless.
The chief minister virtually invariably represents the majority community, continuing the Meitei tradition of dominating official decision-making. This has only led to more dissatisfaction.
To get things under control, the prime minister must immediately go to the state and start peace negotiations with all parties involved. That a leader who is seen as the greatest choice to mediate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine is unable to settle the smouldering conflict within his own nation is ironic. There needs to be a solution to the Manipur dispute. It is intolerable that there have been so many civilian casualties and thousands of displaced people.
