Calling for a statewide torch rally
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 05, 2024 -

FIRST, it was Lieutenant General Pradeep Chandran Nair, who retired from service as the 21st Director General (DG) of Assam Rifles on July 31, 2024; and then Lieutenant General Rana Pratap Kalita, who served as the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the Indian Army's Eastern Command until his retirement on December 31, 2023.

And now, Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi himself, who took over the role from General Manoj Pande since June 30, 2024.

If one looks at it carefully, there is an unmissable pattern behind the former as well as serving top officers of the Indian Army coming out to give interviews to news channels or talk about the ethnic conflict in Manipur at various public platforms.

As we have pointed out through this column earlier, the fact that Manipur has been engulfed in an unprecedented violent conflict that broke out between the Kuki-Chin and Meetei communities since May 3, 2023 and the last part of the service period of some of these now vocal Army veterans had witnessed some of the most violent clashes between the two ethnic communities in the history of not just Manipur but also in modern India should be enough for anyone to sit up and lend their ears to what they are saying.

But often these interviews and talks turned out to be just another conscious effort to create confusion in the mind of the people on the role of over 60,000 central forces deployed in Manipur to contain the violence which has now spanned over 17 months.

Rather than offering any new insights, they are seen trying their best to defend and clear the names of their respective military organisations from any possible lapses in performing the task of containing the violence and assisting the state administration in maintaining law and order situation in strife-torn Manipur.

Some of the statements made by Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi on the Manipur issue recently are no different from what the former DG of Assam Rifles and the former GOC-in-C of the Indian Army's Eastern had said.

This is the reason why the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) has taken strong exception and called upon the people of the state to organise a statewide torch rally on Friday night.

Speaking at the event of Chanakya Defence Dialogue- 2024, which was not surprisingly hosted by Indian Army in collaboration with Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) in New Delhi recently, the Chief of Army Staff yet again refuted the use of weaponised drones to drop bombs on civilian populations by the Kuki-Chin militants in Manipur, which is in stark contrast to the evidences gathered by the state police and its sleuths.

The Army chief also contended that there is no infiltration of armed militants from across the Indo-Myanmar border and all those who have entered Manipur are unarmed civilians fleeing from the current civil war in the neighbouring country.

Assuming what the Army chief is saying, can anyone tell us why 30 percent of the weapons recovered during search operations conducted by combined security forces in different parts of Manipur are more advanced and sophisticated than the ones looted from the state armouries?

It was for the singular task of containing the violence and assisting the state administration in maintaining law and order situation in Manipur that one of the largest deployments of security forces in a single Indian state (outside of Jammu and Kashmir) had been done.

Can anyone tell us why the violence has not stopped and the list of casualties is only getting longer with each passing day while the displaced people continue to remain languishing in the relief camps if the huge number of central security forces deployed had done the assigned job dutifully?

It's no wonder COCOMI has sensed that Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi sounded more like Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who has been making differing statements regarding the over 17 months long crisis in Manipur from time to time to hide the failure of double-engine BJP government, which is power both in the state and at the centre.