Creating more and more confusion : Toeing the false narratives
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 02, 2024 -

It is getting more and more confusing and in such a scenario talking about putting Manipur on the track of peace and normalcy sounds like a pipe dream.

It was just the other day that fingers were pointed at illegal migrants, poppy plantations-in short the drug cartel, the War on Drugs and crackdown on illegal occupation of land inside Protected and Reserved Forests as the prime reasons for the violence erupting on May 3, 2023 and today suddenly one is given to believe that the violence started due to the ruling of the Manipur High Court directing the State Government to send the socio-economic and ethnographic report of the Meiteis to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs to study the feasibility of whether the Meitei community fits the bill to be included in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution of India or not.

First it was Union Home Minister Amit Shah who pointed at the ruling of the High Court of Manipur and today Chief Minister N Biren seems to be toeing the same line.

Playing into the hands of the All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur (ATSUM) one may say for the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023 was staged under this theme, but this lie can be called out by anyone as facts say that the rally ended peacefully at the Naga dominated districts of Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul with Churachandpur first erupting in violence and which quickly spread to Kangpokpi and Moreh.

Just days before the violence of May 3, 2023, Churachandpur was already on the edge and one just has to recall how the Churachandpur Open Gym which was set to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister was set on fire on April 28, 2023.

The arson came amid the strong voice of opposition raised by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) against the survey of Protected/Reserved Forest in Chura-chandpur and Pherzawl by the State Government.

This itself should tell a story of its own and one wonders how the order of the High Court asking the State Government to send the report, which was sought by the Centre way back in 2013, could be the reason for the outbreak of the present crisis.

Toeing this line would amount to digesting the lies that have been cooked up to further serve the false narratives that have been fed to the rest of the country.

ATSUM, ITLF, the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) and the Kuki Inpi, Manipur would know that it is not the job of the Judiciary to decide which community fits the bill to be declared a Scheduled Tribe and herein should lie exposed the lies that were woven so dexterously to feed the rest of the country and the world.

If the State Government is under the impression that the time is not conducive the send the report, then it should say so instead of taking cover under a story cooked up the ITLF, CoTU, ATSUM and KIM.

Or should one say that here is a point where the State Government meets eye to eye with these organisations ?

For Manipur to talk of peace or take the next step towards normalcy or the next meaningful step, it should not rest on a premise of falsehood.

This would go against the understanding of working things out for any resolution based on falsehood would be extremely shaky and this fact should not blow over the heads of the Government, either at Delhi or Imphal.

This is where Delhi would need to accept the fact that the High Court order had nothing to do with the violence erupting on May 3, 2023 and one is left wondering why the Centre has not bothered to just take a look at the days before May 3 last year ?

Or is it a case of Imphal failing to present the case of Manipur effectively before Delhi ?

Either way it is disappointing that after more than a year of the violence erupting the Government at Imphal should today toe a line that has been floated so mischievously.

Imphal and Delhi should also not overlook the fact that in all the years of the ST for Meiteis demand there has not been a single case of violence or anything coming near the understanding of extremism.

This is where it becomes extremely crucial for Imphal not to be blind to the facts and not keep changing one’s posturing on the ongoing ethnic clash.

If it is about the ST for Meiteis demand and the ruling of the High Court then what explains the finger pointing exercise at illegal immigrants and the drive against poppy plantations earlier ?

The Government needs to be clear on this.