Manipur violence & New Delhi: Tale of total apathy & indifference
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 11, 2023 -

The guns are booming loud and persistently.

As a result, cries and wailing of people who have lost their dear ones and whose houses have been burnt down are reverberating throughout the valley and hills of Manipur.

No doubt, the sounds of guns are very loud but the silence of the Raisina Hill, South Block/New Delhi is even more deafening.

More than two months of violence during which over 60,000 people have been rendered homeless and over 100 people killed, not a single word has come out from the South Block.

The silence is deafening as well as conspicuous. It sends out a very clear message of both apathy and sheer indifference.

Notwithstanding the persistent and vehement demand of a huge section of the people to either abrogate Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement or rein in Kuki militants who are signatories of the agreement, the Kuki militants are still given an undue long leash.

If those combatants, armed with sophisticated weapons, do not belong to SoO groups, then who are they?

If the heavily armed combatants are not actually SoO groups, why are the Indian armed forces keeping their hands tied?

SoO cannot be more precious than the lives of hundreds of innocent people.

These combatants are launching offensive after offensive at different peripheral areas of the valley, sometimes separately and sometimes almost simultaneously.

Like invading external forces, they are occupying many places after driving out the original settlers.

People are dying every day and anarchy has become the order of the day.

A situation of complete lawlessness has engulfed the society since the past two months.

With the combatants showing no sign of ceasing their offensive, Manipur is being pushed into a state of war.

Undoubtedly, complete lawlessness has become the order of the day although there is an elected Government.

If we are not mistaken, neither President's Rule nor Article .355 has been imposed in Manipur.

But for reasons best known to those at the helm of affairs, the elected Government has done very little to establish law and order.

The Government has failed miserably to protect the lives and properties of citizens. If it is internal law and order problem, the State Government must take up some decisive actions.

And if it is external aggression, New Delhi must step in immediately.

If the elected Government has not yet fallen into a state of comatose, it needs to take up some decisive Actions urgently to stop the violence and neutralise all threats to the integrity of Manipur otherwise it will lose all its legitimacy sooner than later.

Whatever New Delhi and the State Government have done so far to address the violent crisis besieging the State are too little and too ineffective to make any change.

Even Imphal-Dimapur highway has not been fully opened yet. Remember, a passenger bus was made to turn back from Motbung a few days back.

When both New Delhi and the State Government have failed to give any reliable protection, it is up to the people to protect themselves and of course, Manipur, the common home of different communities.

This is where the civil society organisations or CSOs in short have momentous responsibilities.

Instead of acting independently and separately, the CSOs including Meira Paibi organisations need to create a united front, and streamline and channelise all their energy and resources on certain priority areas toward battling the relentless aggression and establish lasting peace in Manipur.

The situation is indeed very critical. Any misplaced decision or wrong move can prove very costly to the idea of united and composite Manipur.

Over its millennia long glorious history, Manipur had overcome multiple challenges including foreign invasions and external aggressions.

Manipur can certainly overcome the current challenge provided there is unity among all sections of people.