The common thread that connects : Silencing the truth
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 29, 2023 -

Over 2000 illegal immigrants detected in 41 locations;
IED fitted Scorpio explodes, 3 kids hurt;
Fresh gun fight strands many on Imp-Ukl road;
Kuki militants open fire on farmers;
Bomb fitted Scorpio came from CCpur side : PCR;
‘Substantial number of arms smuggled in this month;’
Kuki militants build bunkers, hoist flag.

Some of the more prominent and more newsy headlines of news reports carried by The Sangai Express in the last one week or from June 21 to June 27 and one common thread running through all these news headlines is the ongoing clash between the Kukis and Meiteis.

This is how the narrative has been since the morning of May 4, the day after Manipur went up in flames following the Tribal Solidarity March held on May 3.

Everyone knows when it started but how it started is something which has been neatly sidestepped to suit the narrative that has been spun out for the audience of the world to lap up.

And this is a point that has been called out on more than one occasion by The Sangai Express.

Solution first, peace next, is the slogan that has been championed by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, Committee on Tribal Unity and the Kuki Inpi, Manipur and one wonders if the solution that is being sought or demanded rest on the premise of the narrative they are peddling.

Let it be very clear. The clash or violence that erupted after the Tribal Solidarity March was not in any way connected to the demand that the Meiteis be granted the ST category under the Constitution of India.

Under whose instigation were the Meitei houses set on fire at Torbung and it was this fire that spread in no time to Imphal and the other valley districts.

Who were the gun wielding bravados that took part in the rally ?

The answer is there for everyone to know but the separate administration champions have turned a blind eye to this but any process for a solution should start from the answers to these questions.

Evading these questions and playing the victim card will find no takers anywhere.

Let it also be very clear to everyone that blocking the National Highway and checking each and every passenger vehicle to verify if they have on board anyone from a particular community is not paving the path for a solution.

Or is the sought after solution going to be the one dictated by one side without taking into consideration the take of the other side ? Nothing can be more outlandish than such an approach.

Other than the Meitei-Kuki clash that runs through all the headlines of the news stories cited in the opening line of this commentary, another common thread that runs through and which can be read without much difficulty is the link between illegal immigrants and the flow of guns and ammunition into Manipur from across the border, the gun fire from the foothills of the State and construction of bunkers.

Note the assurance of the Chief Minister to the displaced folks at Bishnupur on June 23 that the Government will clear all unauthorised bunkers.

The assurance must have been pleasant to the ravaged people, but that such an assurance came on June 23, that is after more than 45 days of the clash erupting on May 3 should tell its own significant story.

Same is the ‘success story’ of ‘bunkers destroyed’ and ‘area domination drive’ by the Army and so eager it was to to highlight this to the media that a team of reporters had a nasty experience while covering the said story in the company of the Army at Henjang village near Leimakhong in Kangpokpi district on June 27 morning.

Manipur went up in flames on May 3 evening.

In between there have been numerous stories of firing from the foothills, clashes between members of the two communities, many more deaths, many more cases of arson and it was only on June 23 that the Chief Minister announced the Government’s intention to destroy the unauthorised bunkers.

It was only on June 27 that the Army got confident enough to take a team of media persons to cover their area domination exercise and the clearance of bunkers and here lies a tale, a very sorry tale.

What were the security personnel and the Government doing when the bunkers were built in the first place ?