Solution first, peace later slogan : Self explanatory stand
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 09, 2025 -

Certain points need to be put straight.

The demand for Separate Administration, first aired publicly by the ten Kuki-Zo MLAs, obviously at the instance of Kuki militants under the SoO pact and backed to the hilt by the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) and perhaps a little later by the Kuki Inpi, Manipur, came after violence erupted on May 3, 2023.

And newly inducted Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla was perfectly in line with his observation, ‘Peace before Solution.’

Stretch the logic in this one line statement and it should be more than clear that a demand which came up after violence had erupted should have no place in the understanding of any ‘solution’ that may be worked out.

The demand for a Separate Administration is not the reason for which the violence erupted on May 3, 2023 or if the Kuki-Zo CSOs are under the impression that this demand should precede any move to arrive at a settlement, then can one take that Meitei settlements were first attacked at Torbung and Churachandpur so that the demand for a Separate Administration may be raised ?

This is where it gets clearer that the Tribal Solidarity March was organised on May 3, 2023 so that tension can be worked up and in the process attack Meitei settlements at Torbung and Churachandpur, all with the objective of raising the Separate Administration demand.

Else how does one explain the rational of putting the line, ‘Solution first, peace later’ slogan even after the Governor himself had urged to work for ways to first usher in a semblance of normalcy and peace ?

And The Sangai Express has been following the developments since the evening of May 3, 2023 closely and this is where the import of the question, ‘If the Tribal Solidarity March was against the ruling of the High Court to send the report sought by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs back in 2013,’ where was the need to pick out the Meitei settlements at Torbung and Churachandpur ?

Or if the Kuki folks had any misgivings with the policies and programmes of the Government, why should a community be targeted ?

The Meiteis and the Nagas have also protested against any policy and programme of the Government, but never has a community ever been targeted.

This is the bottomline and this is where the lies and more lies of the Kuki CSOs stand exposed.

This should also reinforce the truth that it is the trouble making Kuki CSOs which have been engineering more and more violence and which has allowed the situation to drag on for more than 20 months.

Governor AK Bhalla has taken the first step towards reaching out to the people to search for normalcy and proceeding up to Churachandpur was significant, given that a planned visit by Chief Minister N Biren to inaugurate an Open Gym was aborted, just a few days before violence erupted on May 3, 2023.

Back then Manipur was under the impression that it was against the Government that the protest was staged, and this is where the import of the question, why Meitei settlements had to be targeted and attacked at Torbung and Churachandpur.

No answer to this question has been forthcoming for answering this would mean admitting that there was a bigger agenda behind organising the Tribal Solidarity March of May 3, 2023.

Solution first, peace later is a slogan coined not recently for this has been the calling card of CoTU and ITLF from the initial days of the conflict and the emerging pattern should be clear to Manipur and with the demand for SA still not yet visible on the horizon, this should explain why so many Meitei settlements at the foothills continue to be bombarded.

Manipur should know that the longer the violence persists, the more the place and her people will lose and this simple logic should not blow over the heads of anyone.

And it also stands that the slogan, ‘Solution first, peace later,’ itself gives away the agenda of starting the violence and the very act of first targeting Meiteis at Torbung and Churachandpur.