What is the method behind the silence ? Manipur continues to burn
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 21, 2023 -

The PM has not spoken. A case of indifference ?

Or a case of the Prime Minister so engrossed in working out a formula that would not displease anyone on either side of the clash divide, but from which Manipur and by extension India will emerge the winner, that he has not found the time to even ask, ‘what is happening’ ?

Has the Prime Minister even spoken to the Chief Minister on the phone to get a first hand account of the ethnic clash here ? May 3 was not yesterday.

In fact it has been over 45 days since the clash erupted and hundreds have lost their lives.

Thousands have been left homeless and the shelter home is now the place they call home, that is if a school or a structure that provides them shelter from the rain and Sun can be called a home.

Hundreds of houses have been razed to the ground and the Imphal-Dimapur route has been practically cut off and it will take more than the understanding of time for Meiteis to feel free and safe to go by road to Dimapur and Guwahati.

To many Kukis, Imphal will no longer be the place they used to call home and for the students and others earning their livelihood outside Manipur, Imphal will no longer be the place they return to during their Summer break and during the Christmas holidays.

Gun fights continue to ensue at the foothills and houses continue to be torched with regularity that it has sort of crossed the alarming stage !

Night vigils continue at different places and there is nothing to suggest that Manipur has taken its first step towards normalcy.

Ironic it is that the loud reports of gunshots seem to be punctuated only by the deafening silence of the Prime Minister.

Not that anyone here in Manipur expects a magic concoction to come from the Prime Minister, but the least that may be done is to show that New Delhi is concerned about the ongoing clash and will put in its best foot forward to work out a solution that would be acceptable to either side.

All it would have taken to bring the 10 Kuki-Chin MLAs to abide by the oath they took as elected Members of the House would have just been a word or two from the office of the Prime Minister but the longer the ‘separate administration’ demand they had raised is allowed to hang in limbo, the more complicated the demand they had raised can become.

Not surprising that the ‘separate administration’ call of the 10 Kuki-Chin MLAs is now the rallying point for many in Imphal.

How serious are they in raising this demand or have they done this at the instance of the powers that be, just so that the real reason for first lighting the match at Torbung on May 3 could be given the much needed boost ?

Only the ten MLAs and those who have orchestrated the violence at the foothills of Manipur and whose writ now runs along the Imphal-Dimapur Highway at Kangpokpi can answer this but an honest answer is not something which anyone would expect.

This is where an observation from a lawyer friend becomes interesting. Separate administration on the ground that they cannot live together with the Meiteis is something of a farce, given the fact that the Meiteis cannot buy land in the hills.

The Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act is not extended to the hills so they already live under a separate arrangement.

The tribal customary law is alive and kicking in their midst.

So what do they mean by separate administration are the posers raised by the said lawyer friend during a discussion and this is a question which only the said 10 MLAs can answer.

Simple, rudimentary questions but for which no one expects any intelligible answer for reasons which should be obvious to all.

First attack a village, set their houses on fire just because they belong to the Meitei community, at Torbung for the record, play the victim card and accordingly raise the ‘separate administration’ call and continue firing at the villages in the foothills.

To stop this tragic farce, the PM needs to open his mouth.