Countering fictive campaign of unfriendly neighbour
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: November 30, 2024 -

THE government of Manipur has made its position crystal clear that it wouldn't yield to the pressure tactics and continuous vilification campaigns by the Mizoram government representatives as well as political figures and organisations of the neighbouring state.

By providing shelter to Kuki-Zo people displaced by the violence, the Mizoram government seems to be living under the impression that it has every right to criticise the N Biren government instead of finding the root cause of the conflict.

In a hard-hitting statement issued late Thursday evening in response to a slew of allegations and accusations levelled by the Mizo National Front against the government of Manipur, the DIPR disapproved constant meddling in the internal affairs of Manipur by the MNF and out-rightly rejected the latter's demand for resignation of chief minister Biren, along with reminding the Mizoram-based political party that its then chief minister Zoramthanga was routed in the last Mizoram Assembly elections, despite riding on a shrill wave of anti-national pro-Myanmar refugee propaganda and anti-Manipur stance.

Reacting to the press statement issued in the name of MNF Media & Publicity Department general secretary VL Krosehnehzova, the DIPR rebuttal contended the MNF has been consistently revealing its true colours as an anti-national party with its strong opposition to the efforts of the government of India to fence its open borders with neighbouring Myanmar for the purpose of curbing illegal immigration, trafficking of arms and drugs, internal security and defence.

Myanmar, it pointed out, is the origin of most of the illegal immigration and drugs problems that Manipur has been facing, further reminding that the MNF had run a secessionist movement in the then Mizo district of Assam, before signing a peace accord with the centre and transforming the erstwhile armed outfit to a political organisation.

Regardless of national media attributing the Manipur crisis to the demand by the Meetei/Meitei community for granting scheduled tribe status and subscribing to the Kuki-Zo civil bodies' narrative that perpetrators have been targeting churches, and the Kuki-Zo organisations charging the N Biren government of backing Meetei armed groups in carrying out genocidal attacks, the government machinery asserted that the crisis in Manipur is a creation of illegal immigrants from Myanmar, whose economy, after illegally settling in the state, driven by cultivation of illicit poppy, had taken a severe hit under chief minister N Biren's 'War on Drugs' campaign.

Clarifying that the crisis is not on account of any religious policy of the state government, as has been falsely portrayed by the MNF and other vested interests even on foreign soil and in various international fora, through fabricated narratives, it opined that the MNF might be criticising the Biren government to divert attention of the national and international fraternities that the conflict, on the Kuki side, is funded by narco-terrorist elements.

Apart from the DIPR dismissing the charges levelled against the government of Manipur, it's an undeniable fact that since outbreak of the Kuki-Meetei conflict in May 2023, the then Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga had been sparing no efforts in demonising his Manipur counterpart Biren, with the former's successor Lalduhoma, too, not only adopting the same stance of holding the Biren-government accountable for the Manipur crisis but also advocating self-rule of Chin-Zo groups by carving out parts of Myanmar, India (northeast) and Bangladesh.

Whether or not the objective will materialise only time will tell, but the fact remains that the Mizoram government has no intention to help resolve the Manipur conflict.