Court reprieve for Govt, not so for fringe villages
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: August 04, 2023 -
THE state government must be heaving a huge sigh of relief over the High Court of Manipur directing the government authorities to take effective measures to prevent escalation of violence in the wake of Kuki organisations' attempt to bury bodies of Kukis who lost their lives during the course of the ethnic violence, which is showing no signs of receding precisely three months after the clashes broke out.
Had the International Meeteis' Forum not filed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court to stop the planned mass interment with the obvious objective to stake claim over the occupied land, then there is strong possibility of the Kuki public and civil societies going ahead with the plaint event which in turn would have triggered violent reactions from the Meetei community, many of whom from different parts of the valley districts had already started converging at the edge of Torbung village since Wednesday evening.
As mentioned earlier in this column, there wouldn't have been any issue had the Kuki organisations chosen one of the Kuki villages within Churachandpur district for the burial and not the Mulberry Farm of the state-run Sericulture Office, which officially lies under Kumbi assembly constituency in Bishnupur district.
As pointed out in the PIL, the Mulberry Farm where the mass burial of people from the Kuki-Zo tribes was planned is a government property which no particular community should stake claim and every tax payer has the right and authority to protect the government properties.
Such assertion by the Forum will definitely be not digestible, acceptable and agreeable to the Kukis, on the ground that the site is currently under its siege.
However, subsequent to filing of the PIL, a bench of the court's chief justice MV Muralidaran and justice A Guneshwar Sharma did the needful and asked the Manipur chief secretary and director general of police to file their stand with regard to the issue, and consequently ordered status quo at the said site on Thursday morning.
Notably, days after the Kuki-Meetei feud in the state was overshadowed by the viral video that surfaced on july 19 showing naked parading of two Kuki women on May, the petitioner brought to the fore that the government's crackdown on poppy plantation or drug dealers, eviction of encroachers from Reserved & Protected Forests and the public's demand for implementation of National Register of Citizen (NRC) in the state are some of the primary factors that triggered the ethnic tension and unprecedented violence.
Amid the fear that allowing the burial programme at the controversially chosen site might lead to fresh bout of violence, the Court, fortunately stepped in followed by deployment of additional central forces to maintain order in the area.
Nevertheless, it could be safely stated that the court's order wouldn't stop the Kuki militants from targeting Meetei villages in the foothills as they are certain to showcase devil-may-care attitude and exhibit fire-power to create fear among the Meetei people settling in the peripheral areas, as these villages had been in the line of fire since the violence began.
Therefore, it is desired that the government authorities keep the security forces on their toes in order to prevent loss of more innocent lives.
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