Peace claim and continuing violence
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 19, 2024 -

AFTER living in a state of turmoil for more than 16 months now, everyone in Manipur is becoming rather sceptical of everything that the government says or does.

So, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the government has prepared a roadmap for peace and is actively engaging with both the warring Kuki-Chin and Meetei communities to ensure lasting peace and stability in the violence-hit state, we cannot help but wonder how many people were actually, convinced.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital New Delhi on Tuesday afternoon to highlight achievements of the Modi government's first 100 days in its third term, the Union Home Minister contended that "Barring three days of violence, no major incidents were reported" and expressed hope that "peace will be fully restored soon" in Manipur as "the situation has been stable".

Ironically, it was in the night of the same day that the report of fresh attack by the armed Kuki-Chin militants at Mongbung Meitei village in Jiribam district, forcing the village defence volunteers, along with state forces and CRPF personnel stationed in the area to retaliate, has come in.

Whether this was a pure coincidence or a deliberate act of sabotaging the government efforts, we cannot say for sure.

But one thing that everyone can expect with certainty is that armed Kuki-Chin militants would be stepping up their subversive activities every time someone in the government says peace is returning in Manipur or efforts have been made for initiating dialogue between the two warring communities.

This is a fact which chief minister N Biren Singh himself had acknowledged.

Even if no one would agree with the part of claiming peace and normalcy returning in Manipur, whether it is made by the union home minister or the chief minister, none, would be able to deny how such claims trigger the Kuki-Chin militants to go in fighting mode every time.

This is also a clear indication of the presence of some influential people, who are backing the armed Kuki-Chin militants and do not want the conflict in Manipur to end anytime soon.

The identity of these influential people needs to be established and exposed as they are the main brains behind orchestrating the whole conflict by taking advantage of the demand raised for granting ST status to the Meetei/Meitei.

If not for their undue interference and provocation, it would not have been possible at all for a "Peaceful Tribal Solidarity March" taken out against a "misplaced" order of the High Court of Manipur directing the state government to send recommendation to the centre for recognising Meetei/Meitei as ST to get transform into a movement for a separate administration for the Kuki-Chin people first and now a union territory with legislature.

So, these influential people have much to lose if the over 16 months long conflict between the Kuki-Chin and Meetei communities is to be cut short without achieving anything substantial, that too, after so many precious human lives have been sacrificed and subjected thousands of families to displacement from their hearths and homes.

As union home minister Amit Shah had already rejected the demand for a "separate administration" in Manipur for Kuki-Chin people to resolve the ongoing conflict when he said that the state "would not be allowed to break apart under any circumstances" during his last visit to the strife-torn state for the 18th Lok Sabha election rally; these influential people, who are backing the armed Kuki-Chin militants, must be living under the impression that continuation of violence and subversive activities to keep Manipur on the boil are their only bargaining chip left to exert pressures for achieving their demand, howsoever untenable it may be in a tiny yet multi-ethnic society, which is a home to more than two dozen recognised tribes.