In a state of crisis for over 500 days : The factors responsible
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 16, 2024 -

Is the Government of India keen on resolving the ethnic crisis here in Manipur, which has dragged on for more than 16 months or more than 500 days ?

Surely something or someone powerful and influential could be sponsoring the violence and if Delhi is really intent on bringing the conflict to an end, then it can do so.

This is where the question-what are the 60,000 troops rushed in here when trouble erupted in the evening of May 3, 2023 doing ?

What are their briefs ?

Do their job begin and end with criss crossing the length and breadth of Manipur with buffer zones ?

That too a job which they are not at all doing well, given the fact that well armed militants are known to have entered the villages in the valley and carry out their violent acts ?

Remember the killing of three including a father-son duo at Kwakta somewhere in Bishnupur district in August last year?

Or the case of a sleeping man shot dead at Jiribam just very recently ?

Just citing two examples that come to mind immediately and this should more than testify that the security personnel pumped into the State have been falling terribly short in making their presence meaningful.

The fact that Delhi needs to step in meaningfully to resolve the situation could not have blown over the heads of the people who matter in the country and the steadfast refusal of the Prime Minister to give his mind and thought to the human tragedy that is being scripted here has created just the space needed for conspiracy theories to do the round.

Apart from the allegations of militants from across the border being actively involved in the conflict, fingers are now being pointed at the unrest at Bangladesh as having all the potential to exacerbate the Metei-Kuki conflict with many hinting at the involvement of the West, primarily the United States which is reportedly seeking a base in the North East by setting up a Christian country.

A calculation that jells with the aspiration of a Zalengam.

Another theory doing the round and which will find many takers in Manipur is the need for India to blunt the influence of China on the Tatmadaw or the military rulers in Myanmar and the alignment of the Kuki armed groups with the rebels of Myanmar is well known.

Again it is not without reason why the Government of India is suspected to have inked the SoO pact with the Kuki groups with the larger objective of neutralising the Naga armed groups, primarily the NSCN (IM) and the other armed groups of Manipur, such as PLA, UNLF, PREPAK, KYKL etc.

This is the reason why the Assam Rifles is alleged to be going extremely soft on the Kuki militants and why former DGAR PC Nair negated the report that weaponised drones and rocket propelled explosives are used by the Kuki militants.

The seeming indifference of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the over 16 months conflict then comes with the understanding that India may have something more than just signing the SoO pact and keeping everyone confused on the exact status of the pact, after it was not publicly extended on February 29 this year.

In the process, it is Manipur which has been put on the scaffold and this is something which is beginning to get clearer with each passing day.

If one goes by reports which have been published in some section of the media in other parts of the country, then the involvement of foreign powers in the conflict is a distinct possibility.

India weighing her geo-strategic interests while Manipur continues to burn is what has exasperated the people here no end and in the beginning the Leftist media was more than happy to lap up the narratives spun out by the Kuki narrators and try to give more and more credence to the victim story that has been floated with so much dexterity.

Involvement of foreign powers, which has been greatly boosted by India's geo-strategic interests and in the process put Manipur on the scaffold, a victim story that has been spun out with so much dexterity and an Imphal which is reluctant to assert its position, have all gone together to script the tragedy here for over 500 days.

And this is what is keeping the conflict burning.