Justice to displaced people
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: July 15, 2024 -

IT may not be exactly the kind of light at the end of a dark tunnel that everyone has been waiting eagerly.

But it is heartening to know that just after 17 days of taking oath as the newly elected Member of Parliament (MP) to the 18th Lok Sabha from the unreserved Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency, Dr Angomcha Bimol Akoijam has come up with the idea of constituting a committee for preparing a report on the socio-economic profile of the people who have become internally displaced on account of the ethnic conflict that has been going in the tiny northeastern Indian state for more than a year now.

The conflict that broke out on May 3 last year after people of Kuki-Chin community clashed with the Meetei/Meitei over the latter's demand for recognition as scheduled tribe (ST) has so far led to loss of hundreds of precious human lives and rendered homeless thousands of families on both sides of the clash divide, forcing them to take shelter in relief camps.

So, the MP has done the right thing in constituting a committee, christened as "Committee on Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons of Manipur" with the main objective of formulating policies and programmes to alleviate the hardships faced by the displaced people and facilitate their return to their original homes.

The 10-member committee to be led by retired IAS officer RK Nimai and also include retired IPS Thangjam Brojen Singh; retired economics professor Elangbam Bijoykumar Singh; MU History Department, associate professor Dr Chungneijai Mathew MK; professor (Dr) RK Lenin Singh; Imphal Review of Arts and Politics editor Pradip Phanjoubam; activists Nonibala Narengbam; and Islam Makakmayum as well as journalist Babie Sharin as members and advocate Hijam Chandrakumar (member secretary) has been specially tasked with the responsibility of preparing a comprehensive report on the social, economic, and educational status of the internally displaced people and their current conditions in the relief camps, and the report is to be finalised and presented within three months with recommendations for steps to improve their situation and facilitate their resettlement.

While this initiative is appreciable, especially considering the fact that thousands of homeless families are still languishing in the relief camps and staring at an uncertain future as there has been no solution in sight for resolving the conflict even after more than 14 months, one main concern that we have is how resettlement of the displaced Meetei people to their respective original places in Kuki-Chin dominated areas is going to be accomplished when there has been no change in the stand of Kuki-Chin organisations and leaders spearheading the demand for a separate administration.

How some Kuki-Chin individuals and organisations had meticulously planned and executed the ethnic clashes while playing the victim card is well-known to all by now.

So, after successfully flushing out all the Meeteis from all Kuki-Chin dominated areas like Churachandpur, Kangpokpi and Moreh in Tengnoupal district, any effort to resettle the displaced Meeteis is sure to be opposed tooth and nail.

Another concern is that displacement has happened on both sides.

While the displaced Meeteis have time and again openly expressed their desire to go back to their respective homes, even though many of the houses have been either burnt down or flattened; Kuki-Chin people who got displaced from the valley area have been not so explicitly vocal about resettlement due to some obvious reasons including fear of reprisal from their leaders and organisations, who are spearheading the demand for a separate administration and are always on the lookout for opportunity to prove right their narrative of being supposedly "prosecuted by the majoritarian Meetei government".

As a matter of fact, when the committee is said to have been constituted to investigate the socio-economic profile of displaced people, particularly those living in relief camps in Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur and Kakching districts, it is going to be grabbed as a god-sent opportunity by Kuki-Chin leaders and organisations to push their agenda.

Nonetheless, we feel every right-thinking citizen should welcome the initiative made by the newly elected MP as a step towards ensuring justice to the displaced people, even if the solution to the conflict is yet to be explored.