Sense of insecurity among Meetei MLAs as violence continues
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: May 26, 2023 -

WITH exception of seeking the cen-tre's intervention to prevent further escalation of tension and spread of violence in the wake of the May 3 communal riots, there is no clarity what other proposals the non-Kuki legislators, who are in Guwahati, would place before the Union home minister Amit Shah.

However, the eagerness to have an audience with Amit Shah and apprise him about the present volatile situation in the state indicates that the ruling party MLAs and from the alliance partners, those from the Meetei community in particular, are apprehensive that the agitated people might vent their angst on them.

For instance, the Ningthoukhong house of minister Govindas Konthoujam was stormed and vandalised by womenfolk on Wednesday in what could be tell-tale signs of the Meetei population losing their patience as Kuki mili-tants remain a serious threat to their life and livelihood.

Use of automatic firearms by the perpetrators involved in attacking the Meetei people in the foothill villages makes it clear that communal enmity is not the only reason for the conflict situation but it is execution of the plan to permanently wipe out all traces of the Meetei population from their ancestral home in Kuki populated areas and to preserve colonies in Imphal area inhabited by the Kuki tribe.

The May 22 incident at New Checkon when some Kuki youths threatened women vendors not to ply their wares at the Tribal Market and insisted that the area belongs to the Kuki tribe corroborate the suspicion that the Kuki would neither leave Imphal nor allow Meetei to settle in Kuki dominated districts.

Amid the tension gripping the masses and immense physical and mental distress caused to people of both the affected communities, MLAs of the ruling alliance seem apprehensive that failure to bring an end to the mayhem might be detrimental to their interest and political career.

With the ministers forced to remain idle due to sensitive nature of the situation and the MLAs seemingly out of ideas and unable to stabilise the situation, it is obvious that some urgent measures must be initiated to impress upon the agitated people.

Thus, with the hope that there would be some effective policy and steps taken up to stop the violence in the real sense, the legislators started to dash to the Assam capital Guwahati in different flights including chartered ones since Wednesday evening to literally beg before Amit Shah to prevent outbreak of fresh violence.

Mention must be made here few days after the communal riots broke out the chief minister and some of his ministerial colleagues along with Rajya Sabha MP Leishemba Sana-jaoba were summoned by the home minister.

What instruction Amit Shah gave to contain the violence remains unknown barring the chief minister announcing after returning from the national capital that the home minister assured to safeguard the territorial integrity of Mani-pur.

Interestingly, involvement of Kuki armed militants in violent attacks on Meetei people and their properties intensified after the New Delhi trip, thereby indicating that mere assur-ance from the centre wouldn't be making much of a difference to either the ground situation or safety concerns of the MLAs, the Meetei legislators to be specific.