Into the fifth month now, and there still seems no end in sight to the Manipur nightmare which began on May 3 and has seen some of the worst bloodletting between Kuki-Zo community and Meiteis. After the initial days of complete mayhem, pattern has been for short spells of quiet raising hopes for peace, only to be shattered without warning by sporadic gunfights along the foothills, reopening barely healed wounds.
But even during these short spells of respite, the undercurrents of hostility remain unchanged. Civil bodies of the warring communities have imposed blockades and counterblockades, restricting or ending not only passenger traffic but also of good and commodities, making life miserable especially for the poorer sections who can ill afford essentials at dearer prices, not to speak of air travel. With such underlying tensions, it only needs a small spark to cause devastating explosions.
All the while, what has also become more than apparent is that the state government is not only clueless but also not autonomous. Routinely, the state chief minister N. Biren Singh and his other cabinet colleagues rush to New Delhi for approval of every little strategy, reinforcing the popular belief the state government is now no more than a puppet on a string.
This is also the inadvertent characterisation of the state government by none other than the Union home minister Amit Shah in the Parliament recently during the August no-confidence motions against the BJP government. When asked if a change of leadership or a spell of President’s Rule was being contemplated in Manipur, his answer was in the negative, explaining that the State government was cooperating well with the Central government.
This aside, the question that remains unanswered is, whatever be the administrative structure the Central government prefers in the state, why is it not bothered that state government is still unable to size up the crisis and end it. It could well turn out BJP this time is taking too much for granted the stereotype that electorate in Northeast states like Manipur always lean towards the party in power at the Centre.
This conflict has already taken an officially confirmed toll of 175 people dead, 1,118 injured and 32 missing and untraced. Of the dead, 96 are still in state mortuaries yet to be claimed. There have also been at least 5,172 cases of arson of which 4,786 are homes, 254 churches and 132 temples. Over 60,000 people are also estimated to have been displaced and still in community run relief camps.
About 5000 looted guns are also still in the hands of rioters, a bulk of them taken from police armouries in the valley areas. Arms lootings were in the hills too. Indeed, the first robbery was from a licensed gun shop in Churchandpur town opposite the main police station on May 3 afternoon itself, captured on multiple CCTV cameras and widely circulated on social media along with images of arson attacks on the day. The FIR lodged by the shop owner says 500 assorted weapons, including 17 pump action repeater shotguns, 25,000 ammunitions, were among the looted arms. The next few days witnessed a spree gun looting by mobs everywhere.
It is also confounding why despite a concentration of around 60,000 central forces in the state who together with the state police constabularies would add up to nearly a lakh pair of boots on the ground, total area domination is still not achieved by the government. Even at this stage, other than fire-fighting operations when clashes break out, no visible effort is seen to bring the situation under control. This is unfortunate, for end of open hostility has to precede any community level reconciliation initiative.
Is there then a bigger plan? Is the conflict being allowed to drag on so as to compel Meitei insurgents in their camps in Myanmar to return to join the fight in a big way so that they can be cornered and made to come to the negotiating table, just as Naga and Kuki insurgents have? If the wait is for such an outcome, the disturbing question is, what about the expected exponential increase in collateral damage than what is already being witnessed?
This article was first published in The Telegraph. The original can be read HERE
Editor, Imphal Review of Arts and Politics and author
