Waking up to the threat of foreign hands
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 18, 2024 -

FOR a change, it is good to see many mainstream television news channels giving sufficient air time and their high-profile news anchors exercising their lung power to talk about the conflict between the Kuki-Chin and Meetei communities in Manipur.

The conflict between the two communities broke out on May 3 last year after a supposedly peaceful "Tribal Solidarity March" organised by the All Tribal Students' Union, Manipur (ATSUM) in all hill areas against an order passed by the Manipur High Court which directed the state government of Manipur to send recommendation to the Central Government for recognising the Meetei/Meitei community as Scheduled Tribe (ST) turned violent only in Churachandpur district and soon spread to other Kuki-Chin dominated areas.

Despite that fact that hundreds of precious human lives had been lost and thousands of internally displaced families on both sides of the clash divide forced to live in relief camps for more than 16 months now, most mainstream television news channels in the country did not give the kind of coverage that was needed to understand the root causes of the conflict between the two communities and its larger geopolitical implications.

They were more concerned about the Israel-Palestinian conflict in the distant Middle East or the war between Russian and Ukraine in Europe while remaining completely oblivious of what is happening in their own backyard.

This had even compelled as many as 102 journalists, who were part of the South Asian Women in Media (SAWM), to issue a joint statement in July, 2023 calling upon the media organisations in the country to "ensure that Manipur stays in the news" by giving not only front-page or prime-time coverage but also allotting adequate space in "editorials, articles and prime-time discussions" so as to build pressure and hold the state authorities accountable.

Even though the appeal made by SAWM did not bring about any significant changes in the coverage of Manipur issue by the Indian media organisations, it seems most mainstream television news channels in the country have woken up these days, especially after the recerit incidents of not only weaponising drones by Kuki-Chin militants for carrying out aerial bombings on civilian populations and security posts but also firing rockets/ missiles, even if they were indigenously made or assembled.

Apart from giving sufficient air time or prime-time coverage, many of the high-profile news anchors are today competing against each other in exercising their lung power on talking about the conflict between the Kuki-Chin and Meetei communities in Manipur.

There may be nothing new in the issues of encroachment in reserved forest areas, mass poppy cultivation, illegal immigrants and most importantly, flow of arms and ammunition from across the porous international border with civil-war torn Myanmar, fuelling the conflict.

These are the same issues that the government of Manipur and the people have highlighted right from the very beginning.

But the manner in which these news anchors are talking about these issues with such passion is simply unmissable.

They seem to have given an altogether new dimension to the conflict with the sudden realisation that "foreign hands" are very much involved in the conflict in Manipur with an objective to destabilise the internal security of the country.

However, one thing that all these high-profile news anchors fail to do so very glaringly is to hold the state as well as the authorities accountable for the sorry state in which Manipur has fallen today.

They should have the guts to raise question on how the Kuki-Chin militants, who are bound by the agreement of Suspension of Operation (SoO), have become so audacious today and why the conflict has been allowed to go on for so long despite the deployment of so many companies of central security forces in such a tiny state.