For the first time in the last twenty years of uncontrolled and unmediated violent conflicts in Manipur, one single voice is heard from across the divides for the first time in Manipur! Condemnation of the killing of two innocent kids in their sleep with their mother inside their own house by a bomb attack in the wee hours of 7th April in Tronglaobi is a voice which rang in unison across the ethnic divides following days. This is the turning point for any discerning and responsible parents and elected representatives to hold on as the right opportunity for initiating an inclusive people-to-people dialogue and conciliation process in Manipur. This is also an opportunity to test the intentions of the condemnation and will of the elected Government grappling with ‘insurgency’ problems at a geostrategic and security sensitive international boundary.
Blessed be the souls of the two kids whose death created an opportunity to collectively reflect and respond to the situation a common interest across the conflicting parties. It may be self-honouring for the conflicting parties to call for a ceasefire for serious reflections and initiate a social legislation on ethnic conflict for protection of innocent lives including elderly persons, women and children in honour of the innocent kids. The intents of those condemnations, beyond any rhetorics, may also be tested only when CSOs & armed groups across the divides, make sincere efforts to adopt dialogue over violence for resolving the conflicts as part of fundamental duties of responsible citizens. Such a hard-earned opportunity at the sacrifice of the two kids is also the opportunity for the elected state government to establish their credibility and constitutional mandates of upholding security and dignity of all people in Manipur.
This is the second time ethnic violence took over the state power as the elected members of the Governments remained indifferent to or become part of part of it left to only two options; fight or flight creating total absence of the government in mediator’s role. Abdication of Government’s obligation gets even more complicated and murky when the violent conflict along ethnic lines, which is actually a territorial conflict between those who considers themselves as sons of the soil and others who are believed to have migrated into the former’s territory, seem to overlap the existing counter-insurgency operation – a faultline between the ‘insurgent groups’ or ‘suspects’ who are the sons of the soil and who are believed to be the cause of ‘threats to the national security’ at the security-sensitive international boundary, and others who have strong allegiance to the Central Government.
Child rights have been seriously compromised in both the armed conflict situations which has protracted over the last six decades in the state. Hence, protection of child rights in Manipur has to begin with addressing the ‘national security threats’, a perception of the central government as the root cause through inclusive dialogue processes, simultaneously.
The common concerns for child rights across the ethnic lines in Manipur at the sacrifice of many lives of children after decades is a golden opportunity that the Government must take seriously beyond the present white-washing efforts for the upcoming election in 2027. This is the litmus test for any elected government in the state and at the centre. National security at the international boundary cannot be built at the costs of indigenous people’s security and their lives as the former can be firmly established only with all the pre-existing native state and the people of Manipur. Dialogue is the language of communication for a multi-ethnic democratic country. Violence as the language of communication with the people belonging to diverse cultures for the state or non-state actors will destroy the power they seek!
The writer is Visiting Faculty, NEISSR, Nagaland and Coordinator PINE (Manipur-Nagaland)
