Conspiracy theory of the conflict

Chingjin Naral Panganba *

For the last one and half months, all valley dwellers of Manipur are suddenly exposed to a great pre-planned aggression from armed militants coming from across the border and joining hands with a small section of our own brothers and sisters in the hills.

The resultant retaliation from a small section of the valley dwellers residing at the foothills has resulted in spread of the violent incidents in the heart of Imphal city. Everyone by now has started realizing the real root cause of the aggression by the refugee militants and their supporters.

First, there has been a false notion that the valley dwellers are taking major share of the budget coming from the Center and the hill areas are underdeveloped. Regarding budget, the distribution of the allocation of budget expenditure must depend on the population size.

The valley area covering hardly 6 % of the total land mass of Manipur after subtracting the hill areas and the inhabitable Loktak lake and other State and Central Government occupied areas account for more than 60% of the total population of Manipur, including most economically well-placed persons originating from the hill dwellers and settling in the valley.

The legislatures, professionals, bureaucrats, many Government service holders from hills are temporarily/permanently residing in the valley and most of the civil aid distribution to the hill areas are handled by these men and most are not being reached to the grassroot beneficiaries.

At the same time any budget of the Scheduled Tribes is not shared with any valley dweller. So, the narrative that the budget of the hill areas is not properly allocated is false.

Second, the belief that conversion of the Meities to ST will remove the quotas previously enjoyed by the hill dwellers is a wrong notion and is causing a false fear among the hill dwellers. Because the quota of the Meiteis will be taken from the earlier general quota as because the whole State dwellers are to be converted to ST only.

Third, poppy plantation is a lucrative business for the hill dwellers and the cutting down of the poppy plantation by the State Government is creating a great dissent among the hill dwellers.

Fourth, the drug trafficking by the drug mafias and their financing to the armed SoO militants has been threatened by the current State Government.

Fifth, the act of dismantling of illegal houses built in reserved forest areas of illegal migrants by the State Government is greatly resented among the Kukis.

All these factors were the main cause of sparking a violent repercussion in the form of attack on the Meitei community in the hills by killing them and burning down their houses with an aim to uproot the Meiteis from the hill areas and the resultant retaliation by the Meiteis was cleverly pre-planned to be used as a reason for demanding a separate administration for the Kukis.

The Meiteis (including Meitei Pangals) comprising of more than half of the total population of Manipur along with other tribes, main-land Indians, Nepalese etc. are residing in the valley area comprising only about 6% of the total surface area of Manipur, after deducting the Loktak and other inhabitable areas.

The hill dwellers are allowed to settle in the little valley whereas the valley dwellers are not allowed to settle in the hills. The race of Meitei is also part of the Tibeto-Burman or Mongoloid race originated from the same Southeast Asian region from where all the Mongoloid race of hill dwellers originated.

This is a pure discrimination against the valley dwellers who have been residing in this land called Manipur which was a sovereign country before the annexation to India. We the indigenous valley dwellers are not getting the equal rights like our hill counterparts.

The very existence of the valley dwellers is threatened by the current aggression and the systematic conspiracy against them which has been continuing for decades since the independence of India. The current demand of the ST status by Meiteis is the only means left in the hands of the Meiteis to safeguard themselves.

Article 3 of Indian Constitution empower the Central Government/Parliament to change the boundaries of Manipur State, but, before even thinking about the use of the Article, the Central Government need to properly implement the Manipur Merger Agreement and the benefits Manipur was supposed to get because of the Merger.

Central Government on the other hand need to ponder seriously before using the power of the Article because every Meitei will lay down their lives to resist such an act leading to the end of the Meitei race, to which no Meitei will ever hesitate.

The occurrence in the recent one and half months also shows the importance that the Central Government gives to the sufferings of people of Manipur as a whole. Here, as an indigenous dweller of our land we feel that we are being played against each other by other people foreign to our land both from inside and outside India to continue the “divide and rule policy” of the British Colonial Masters.

Violence brings hatred, bloodshed, and loss of properties in an already impoverished State of Manipur. The twenty-first century is not a century for barbarous conflicts. It would have been much better for the already backward State like us to march ahead striving for economic prosperity and less dependance on the help-outs from the Central Government.

Planting poppy and manufacturing narcotics will look lucrative in the short term and myopic view; but, in the long run, drug trafficking will lead to further deterioration of law-and-order situation and degradation of our State to the lowest level in the civilized world.

Narrow-mindedness and causing harm to each other among the dwellers of Manipur will push us further backwards in the race of civilization and self-determination. After this conflict, we would still be neighbors, even if we are separated by political boundaries. No country in the world will prosper with conflicts and violence.

It will be much better to sit together and listen to each other’s problems and bring about a lasting solution. Violence breeds violence and destruction. The learned and civilized people on the side of the Kukis would be wise to rein in their militants for their own benefit. They are not going to benefit much in continuing the conflict with the valley dwellers.

At the same time, it will be in their own interest that the rest of the other indigenous people come out to build a bridge between the conflicting groups instead of remaining as silent spectators, because this is not the first ethnic conflict happening in Manipur State, and, in the earlier conflicts Meiteis took the role of mediators in bringing peace in the State.