Noting the call from AMCO : Look beyond the Cross
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 08, 2024 -

Just like the call of the United Naga Council, some days back, not to target or victimise the Nagas in the ongoing clash between the Meiteis and the Kukis, the call of the All Manipur Christian Organisation (AMCO) not to desecrate Churches, Temples and sacred sites should be noted and appreciated for its mature approach.

As the name itself suggests, AMCO is a Christian organisation, but it has stuck by the understanding of Christianity, best exemplified by its call not to hurt the sentiments of any religious group.

Desecrating or targeting places of worship is abominable enough but it becomes all that more dangerous when a place of worship, a sacred site, is targeted with a political motive, a motive to lay ancestral claim to a place and this is what Manipur has been witnessing ever since the place went up in flames from the evening of May 3, 2023.

At the same time it is also important to note that giving a religious angle to the ongoing clash is nothing but to earn the sympathy of the Western countries and it was this card that was played to such perfection that the ongoing clash, read as attacks on Churches and persecution of a religious minority, featured on the floor of the European Parliament in the earlier part of the more than 9 months old clash.

That such a move boomeranged in the ultimate analysis is a different matter, but here is a case of false narratives being peddled to the outside world to gang up against the Meiteis.

And the sinister political ploy and move continues unabated.

The Cross erected atop Mount Thangjing, the story of which has gone viral in the last many days, should be seen beyond the immediate act of imposing a religious line of thought at a place held sacred by the Meiteis for centuries, but is also a covert and overt attempt to lay claim on the ancestral abode of the Meiteis.

A point which Manipur should take note of with the seriousness it deserves.

Look beyond the Cross, but see it as an attempt to lay ancestral claim on a spot. This is the bottomline.

Apart from Mount Thangjing, one can take a look at Mt Koubru, a sacred site for the Meiteis for centuries and it is for this very reason why there is the annual trek to the peak of this mountain.

If Cheiraoching had been situated further from Imphal, the annual prayers offered atop this hill could well have been jeopardised on the fantastic claim that it is the ancestral land of the Kukis !!

Nothing Christianlike in erecting or putting up a Cross atop Mount Thangjing, as the International Meetei Christian Youth Assembly (IMYCA) pointed out the other day.

This very act goes against the teachings of the Bible, as the Meetei Churches Advocacy for Peace and Development (MCAPD) put it and this is where it becomes important for New Delhi and Imphal to look beyond the religious connotation of the Cross and look at the political agenda.

The bigger agenda should be clear to all, especially to the Government.

The very act of taking to the streets to protest the deployment of State forces at Moreh is not just a case of protesting against the State police, but is also a clear indication that the border town should and will remain under the control of the Kuki militants.

The prospects of India’s Act East Policy has certainly not flown over the head of the gun toting militants at the border town.

A look at the demographic composition of the border town in the 1970s and before the Naga-Kuki ethnic clash erupted in 1992 and the present reality should more than say about the larger political conspiracy at work.

Churches were indeed targeted by mobs at Imphal and in the valley areas in the initial days of the clash, but to equate this with the systematic approach adopted to lay claim on the ancestral land of Manipur would be missing the trees for the woods.

Note the stress on the words, ‘targeted by mobs’ and ‘systematic approach’ and this should reinforce the need to look beyond the immediate and acknowledge the larger political agenda at work.