Seven months on, Manipur simmers as 13 more die. Media, government look the other way

Bollywood actors Randeep Hooda and Lin Laishram tying the knot, decked up in traditional Meitei-wedding attires, in a quaint ceremony in Imphal last week was just the kind of picture frame that violence-hit Manipur was waiting to see for months.

The state has been in news for all the wrong reasons ever since ethnic frenzy took off on May 3, killing around 200 people and displacing more than 70,000. While there are no official figures, it is estimated properties worth crores has been destroyed.

The much-talked about wedding was a welcome relief from all the violence making headlines that made the whole country feel a concern that mostly misses the Northeastern states. The media lapped it up, flashing pictures of the newly-wed couple, drawing parallels with Pandava prince Arjuna’s mythical marriage to Meitei princess Chitrangada.

“Taking a leaf out of Mahabharata where Arjuna married Manipuri Warrior Princess Chitrangada, we are getting married with the blessings from our families and friends. We are filled with immense joy to share that our marriage will take place on the 29th of November 2023, Imphal, Manipur followed by a reception in Mumbai. As we set to embark on this journey, we seek your blessings and love for this union of cultures, for which we are forever indebted and grateful. IN LOVE AND LIGHT, LIN & RANDEEP,” read a joint statement from the duo that got wide coverage.

Snaps of the wedding were widely shared on social media. The smiling, happy faces of Randeep and Lin’s wedding photos and their friends and families were a welcome relief flashed to the couple’s fans from a state which has had no relief from fear for a full seven months now.

Barely had the internet stopped gushing over the photos when news of fresh violence trickled in. On Monday afternoon, 13 people were reported killed in a gunfight between two groups in the Tengnoupal district of Manipur.

Video: A protest rally demanding greater Zo land.

The security forces confirmed receiving inputs about the clash around Letithu village near India-Myanmar border, but they could not confirm the identity of the groups involved in the gunfight. Security forces went to the spot after receiving reports of the bloodshed and found 13 bodies. While the identities of the deceased are yet to be ascertained, no weapons were found on them.

“A group of militants on their way to Myanmar were ambushed by another group of insurgents dominant in the area,” an official in the hill district was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Violence, rapes and vandalism have ripped apart Manipur ever since May. Despite a ‘fiery speech’ by Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament in August claiming normalcy is on its way, Manipur has been simmering. The only thing that changed after the speech is that the national media turned its lens away.

Manipur, meanwhile, stands as divided today as it had been seven months ago, living its worst nightmare. While violent incidents have climbed a few notches lower over the past few months as claimed by Chief Minister N Biren Singh, incidents like the one on Monday continue to belie the administration’s claims.

“In the last two-three months, except for a small incident, no major incident has taken place. Normalcy has almost been restored and it is returning very fast,” the chief minister said in a recent interview with the ANI.

What the chief minister did not tell is that the fall in violence is primarily because of the total segregation of the two confronting communities — Kukis and Meiteis — and not because the State has got a firm control over the law-and-order situation, keen observers of the state-scenario point out. The death of 13 people on December 4 is proof violence is just the slightest trigger away.

“Into the seventh month now, the government is still not in control of the law and order situation. Virtually anybody with any potential of menace can trigger fresh trouble,” said Pradip Phanjoubam, senior journalist and one of the most respected voices from the state.

Incidents of violence continue to take place with armed groups now and then launching surprise attacks in rival-held territories. This despite an additional deployment of 60,000 central force personnel to help the state constabulary and the existing central forces.

More than the state law enforcers, people from both the warring communities rely on village defence volunteers (VDF) for their safety and security. The VDFs guard the home turfs of their respective communities. They, however, are often more of a problem than solution, expectedly so, when about 4,000 lethal arms looted from the state armouries are still in the hands of the civilian population after a few small seizures and voluntary deposits.

The state machinery in the past seven months has failed to rein in the civilian militias who are virtually running a parallel administration in their respective areas of control. The militias are allegedly behind most of the attacks continuing in the state.

Unfortunately, these incidents hardly get covered in the national or regional media because even they are overcome with fatigue, said Onil Kshetrimayum, a Imphal-based human rights activist. “After the Centre, now opposition parties and media too have abandoned the state. The unprecedented humanitarian crisis the state continues to face is no longer an issue for them,” Kshetrimayum said.

That over 50,000 people are still languishing in various relief camps, imposition of partial curfews in most parts of the state and continuation of partial internet ban — severely impacting digitally conducted utility services — are testimony to the absence of normalcy.

The biggest fallacy of the return-of-normalcy claim is the complete emotional and physical separation of Meiteis and Kukis. Neither the BJP-led government at the Centre, nor the state, has so far made any headway in bringing about a reconciliation between the two communities.

Chief Minister Biren Singh recently claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah is holding “peace talks” with leaders of both the warning communities. Leaders from the state make frequent sorties to New Delhi to meet the home minister and other central leaders. Last week, Biren Singh spent four days in Delhi meeting Shah and other central leaders.

Singh is hopeful of a solution soon. But community leaders The Federal spoke to say such interactions have been taking place since the onset of violence. However, nothing has come out of such interactions so far.

“We have held several rounds of meetings with the home minister and other representatives of the government since May. But these interactions never reached any logical conclusion,” a senior leader of a hill-based civil-society organisation told The Federal on the condition of anonymity.

Most valley-based organisations too are not very optimistic about Shah succeeding in brokering peace given he still has not been able to make BJP legislators from the Meitei and Kuki communities sit across the table to iron out their differences. The differences between the BJP’s Kuki and Meitei MLAs, in fact, further deepened after three Kuki legislators were dropped from key positions of assembly committees last month.

The Kuki-Zo community responded to the move by stepping up their demand for a separate administration.

The community under the banner of Zo Unity held rallies across Kuki-Zo dominated districts of the state as well as in places like Delhi, Tripura and Tamil Nadu to press for their separate administration demand.

“There is no hope any longer for Kuki-Zo kindred tribes to live a dignified life in a state controlled by the Meitei community. A separate administration is the only option for us,” the Zo Unity said in a statement.

The most macabre manifestation of the deep-seated animosity festering in the state is the 94 bodies lying in the state’s three mortuaries — two in Imphal and one in Churachandpur. Of these bodies, 88 have been identified, but not claimed by their next of kin. In two mortuaries in Imphal, there are 54 bodies and 40 are at the Churachandpur mortuary.

Handing over of the bodies to the relatives poses a security threat as they are to be transported via rival-community held territories.

The Supreme Court gave a directive on November 28 for the burial or cremation of all the bodies by December 11. But no consensus has been reached yet between the state government and the bereaved families on conducting the last rites of the deceased. This goes on to show how loose the state government’s grip on the situation and that unanimity continues to elude Manipur.