Pinning hope on silent-mode PM to contain violence
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 19, 2023 -

ON-BJP political parties, including NDA and NEDA allies, led by national and regional leaders have been questioning stony silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the violence here in the state but to no avail for reasons best known to one of the tallest leaders in the world and who boast of having the largest number of followers.

Expectedly, the opposition Congress continues to fire sal-vos as the Prime Minister remains indifferent to not only high tension gripping the state but also loss of over 100 lives, destruction caused to properties and displacement of thousands of people from both the commu-nities in conflict.

Apart from the Congress, leaders of regional as well as national political parties active in the state too have started to prod the PM's conscience as he continues to evade the Manipur turmoil which is nearing the 50-day mark.

Not making even cursory remarks on the violence has prompted the opposition parties as well as alliance partners of the BJP government here in the state and at the Centre to contemplate that the Prime Minister is not interested in safeguarding life and properties of people in a politically insignificant state like Manipur, but are still yearning to meet him.

It is quite possible that Modi is refraining from commenting on the violence due to comprehension that it is conflict between the Kuki and the Meetei communities.

However, the PM can't be naive that the clashes are no more between civilians but have turned into a bloody battle between armed groups unfazed by the presence of state or central security forces.

Days after only a handful of established anchors of national television accorded prime time slots to the Manipur violence, albeit in-termittently, in their bid to get an insight into what actually is fuelling the conflict, political parties of national repute seem to have taken note that maintaining silence similar to the Prime Minister might be a hindrance in ce-menting their foothold in the state.

Belated expression of views by some of the national political parties might be under the notion that the conflict was between tribals and non-tribal and Hindus and Christians on the basis of propagation on the same lines by the national media which probably relied on the intense propaganda campaign through the social media platforms in the initial days of the violence.

By now, the national media might have digested that the showdown be-tween the two communities is neither over the demand for Scheduled Tribe status by the Meetei community nor has anything to do with religion.

It is time that the national political figures and the national media intro-spect whether or not the violence is fallout of the government of Manipur's crackdown on poppy plantations to protect the forests, pressure by non-Kuki organisations to update/ implement the National Register of Citizens to check illegal immigration, prevent drug smuggling, exacerbation of the situation due to involvement of mercenaries from the neighbouring Myanmar, etc.

As addressing these issues entail comprehensive planning and effective execution by the Union government, Prime Minister Modi might have perceived that maintaining silence on the Manipur violence is a necessity at this juncture.