Ongoing affairs since May 3, 2023 : Shifting narratives of Delhi
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 03, 2025 -

Manipur should stick to a consistent narrative, the reality of which says that violence erupted at Churachandpur and Tor-bung and not at Imphal or any of the other valley districts.

And it started before, during and after the Tribal Solidarity March organised by the All Tribal Students' Union, Manipur (ATSUM).

The claim that the march was organised against the ruling of the High Court of Manipur which asked the State Government to send the ethnographic and socio-economic report of the Meiteis to see if the said community fits the bill to be included in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Constitution was a lie, a big lie, to fit the fabulously coined Tribal Solidarity March.

The Kuki-Chin-Zo community is not so illiterate that it does not know that the Judiciary cannot decide which community fits the bill to be tagged a Scheduled Tribe or not and hence the question why the rally was organised under the cooked up slogan or theme.

This is the question that should be raised with conviction, even as Manipur gears up to observe the second anniversary of May 3.

It should also be made clear that Imphal and the valley districts retaliated only late in the evening of May 3 and to repeat what has already been said many times in this column, a former Kuki MLA dropped in at the office of The Sangai Express in the evening of May 3, without any trouble.

The visit had nothing to do with the violence back then and the reason why this is being repeated here is to reiterate the reality that the violence at Imphal and the valley districts was only a late retaliation and if the first match stick had not been struck at Torbung or if the Meiteis were not hounded at Churachandpur then Imphal and the valley districts would not have retaliated.

What happened after May 3, 2023 is there for all to see and understand including Delhi.

Two years down the line and what are the steps that have been taken up? More importantly can the issue be taken to its logical conclusion without dealing with the core issues?

These are questions which Delhi should take up but looking at the belligerence of the Kuki-Chin-Zo hardliners it is not clear if any of the pressing matters would be addressed to.

After Manipur came under President's Rule on February 13 this year, the Union Home Minister lost no time in announcing that free movement of all would be ensured by March 8.

Manipur knows what happened on March 8 and the grand announcement of the Home Minister had to be given the quiet burial.

Then on April 5, a joint meeting was held between CSOs representing the Meitei arid the Kuki-Chin-Zo communities at Delhi under the aegis of the Union Home Ministry.

Yet here again the Kuki-Chin-Zo representatives cocked a snook at the points laid down by the Centre, refusing to sign the points of agreement and returned home with the rider that 'they would need to consult with the people first'.

Manipur is not blind about who the 'people' were which the Kuki-Chin-Zo representatives had referred to.

Yet again in April Kuki-Chin-Zo militants threw their weight around and forbade Meitei pilgrims to proceed to Mount Thangjing and at the same time a video footage of fully armed Kuki militants desecrating and kicking around the symbolic flag of the Meitei community went viral on the social media.

Not a word came out against this from either the Raj Bhavan or the Union Aome Ministry.

All these instances have come close on the heels of the shifting narrative of Delhi and so from the finger pointed at the ruling of the High Court for the trouble erupting to pointing to external forces to dubbing the violence as an 'ethnic clash' to now the long rope extended to Kuki-Chin-Zo militants and Manipur has every reason to smell a rat.

The dots connecting the compulsion of geo-politics and the gun and muscle power exerted by the Kuki-Chin-Zo militants and the manner in which it has snubbed the announcement of the Union Home Minister, refusing to sign the points of agreement drawn up by the Union Home Ministry cannot be missed and it is in the knowledge that they would be treated with kids' gloves that the first match stick was struck at Churachandpur and Torbung.

This is the line that Manipur should maintain even as it gears up to remember May 3.

A consistent narrative, this is what is called and this js what would make the observance of May 3 all that more meaningful.