Making sense of the fake press statement
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: August 15, 2023 -

ZOMI Mothers' Association (ZMA) has, obviously, felt aghast.

That feeling of horror and shock on seeing a fake 'press statement' circulated under its letterhead on August 12 condemning the alleged rape of a 37-year-old Meitei woman in Churachandpur on May 3, 2023 is mutual.

If not for an extra careful study on the look and content of the fake press statement purportedly released by the "Information and Publicity, Zomi Mothers' Association, Lamka," anyone could have been fooled easily.

And that was what exactly happened with district correspondents filing report on the matter only to be withdrawn later on.

The content of the fake press statement said, "it has come to our notice that a 37-year-old woman from the Meitei community has alleged that she was raped by miscreants on 3rd May, 2023 at 6.30 pm in Khumujamba Meite Leikai, Lamka.

The Zomi Mothers' Association (ZMA) condemn such heinous acts of sexual violence on women irrespective of their caste, creed and community".

There is nothing to be suspicious in the content of the fake press statement here, for like everyone else ZMA must have also heard about the allegation of gang-rape which is a heinous crime that should be condemned by all sane individuals and civil society organisations.

The fake press statement went on to express collective concern over the vulnerability of women and children in any conflict situation, and called for investigation into cases of sexual violence on women in Manipur during the ongoing conflict by the SIT set up under the directive of the Supreme Court so that justice is done to the victims of both the warring communities.

All these make perfect sense. Nothing less or nothing more.

However, Zomi Mothers' Association (ZMA) was quick enough to come up with a 'press communique' condemning the "illegal usage of our organisation's name and letterhead by unknown miscreants" and said that it will pursue the matter with relevant offices of the cyber-crime department.

Zomi Mothers' Association (ZMA) should definitely pursue the matter for illegal usage of any organisation's name and letterhead is a crime serious enough to attract punishment as per law of the land.

Issued and signed by its president this time, the press communique of Zomi Mothers' Association (ZMA) went on to declare that 'We hereby put on record that there was no rape incident in Lamka on May 3, 2023 and that any allegation for the same is completely unfounded.

Such baseless allegation must be throughout investigated by the CBI to bring out the truth of the matter."

With this, the mutual feeling of 'aghast' that we felt on seeing the fake 'press statement' circulated in the name of Zomi Mothers' Association (ZMA) has been reaffirmed and answered the question of how could any organisation of Kuki-Chin-Zo community based in Churachandpur district could talk so much sense in this time of ongoing violent clashes between the Meitei and the Kuki-Chin-Zo communities in Manipur.

But there is still one more question that need to be answered - how could Zomi Mothers' Association (ZMA) be so sure and 'put on record' that there was no rape incident in Churachandpur on May 3, 2023, the day current communal violence of hatred towards anything and everything related to the Meiteis was first unleashed by the Kukis?

Or, does this mean that Zomi Mothers' Association (ZMA) is keeping track of everything that are happening in Churachandpur district since the outbreak of the current violence and that nothing could or should occur without its knowledge?