Poll deal likely reason for ignoring end - SoO calls
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 15, 2023 -

HAD any of the state dailies independently published the report that two BJP leaders entered into a deal with suspension of operation-bound Kuki insurgent groups and took their help in the 2017 assembly elections, then Kuki organisations are certain to either issue rebuttals or brand Imphal-based media houses as Meetei-centric and the ruling BjP most likely to dismiss the same as biased and malicious.

As per the India Today NE report, a 2019 letter by the leader of one of the Kuki outfits under SoO to Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and Ram Madhav, who looked after the NE states then—had taken help of these Kuki organisations to win the 2017 assembly elections.

The letter was one of the annexures attached along with an affidavit filed by SS Haokip, Chairman, United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF), one of the armed organisations under SoO, in an NIA court on June 8, 2023.

Haokip is an accused in a case of illegal arms purchase from former Congress MLA Yamthong Haokip. The 10 pistols that SS Haokip bought had allegedly been stolen from state police armoury.

Yamthong Haokip was arrested on August 24,2018 on charges of distributing stolen arms to militant outfits.

While possibility of Kuki organisations and the BjP coming up with clarification on the startling report by the India Today NE cannot be ruled out, the fact remains that aspersions were cast by leaders of non-BJP political parties over nexus between armed groups and candidates of BJP and its pre as well as post-poll alliance partners.

It’s also a fact that whenever sensitive issues crop up in the state, Imphal-based media houses are projected as partisan.

In the present restive situation gripping the state, there had been scathing commentaries by Kuki organisations and handful of national media about unfair coverage and more weightage given to the Meetei side of the story rather than acknowledging that Meetei media persons could not gain access to Kuki areas due to the threat perception.

Therefore, had any of the state dailies published the BJP-Kuki militant nexus tale it could be safely stated that the same would be interpreted as attempt to demonise the central security forces for not launching crackdown on the aggressive party in the context of the on-going armed conflicts since outbreak the communal riots on May 3 communal riots.

While BjP’s then northeast in-charge Ram Madhav has dismissed the report saying that there is no question of the saffron party taking help from the SoO groups for the 2017 Manipur assembly elections or the parliamentary polls in 2019, the role and activities of Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma would be under intense scrutiny, especially in the backdrop of his meeting with at-least four leaders of two SoO signatory outfits on June 11 in Guwahati and his proposed visit to Kuki-dominated Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts.

Whatever may be the outcome of Himanta’s parleys with the Kuki outfits or civil societies, the India Today report justifies Meetei civilians and organisations questioning commitment of the central forces in safeguarding their lives and properties and defiance by the Union government to the vociferous demand for snapping the SoO agreement.