Expansionism agenda at play
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: May 22, 2023 -

AT a glance, loss of 73 lives till date since outbreak of the communal riots on May 3, that too only 41 of the casualties officially confirmed as related to the communal riots, doesn't seem congruous with the intensity of the violence in the worst affected areas.

The deaths include handful of rioters in Imphal areas who were shot in defensive firing as the mobs tried to attack houses of a particular community in retaliation after video clips of mass torching of houses at Kangvai and Torbung villages in the periphery of Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts went viral.

Considering the widespread acts of arson in the riot-hit districts and massive displacement of people belonging to both sides of the communities in conflict, the casualty figure as well as the number of injured persons, which has been put at 243, doesn't reflect the deep sense of animosity between the two communities.

Moreover, the relatively low number of casualties indicates presence of individuals among the affected communities who extended help to one another amid the distressfully challenging situation.

The fact that 182o cases of arson have been registered and over loon firearms along with thousands of live rounds were snatched from state's security forces imply that the situation could have been worst had the firearms been used to target the civilian population.

However, it is now clear that intention of the firearms snatchers was not to cause harm to the civilians but to settle score with the heavily armed militants who launched relentless attacks on defenceless villagers in the foothills.

With less than half the snatched weapons re-covered so far, it is also obvious that people do not trust the state and central forces to save lives and properties from the militants, who continue to unleash violence in different parts of the state, specifically targeting the Meetei villages.

Despite repeated claims by the government authorities that the situation is gradually returning to normalcy, the growing demand for issuing licensed firearms suggests trust deficit between the public and se-curity forces.

With Meetei civilians in the foothill villages accusing security forces of taking no firm action to prevent attacks by the Kuki militants, it is but natural to demand issuance of firearms to defend themselves from the marauders.

Taking into the account of the Kuki militants armed with sophisticated weapons provoking, attacking and destroying houses in the foothill villages days after cessation of violence in the plains, and amid claims by the government authorities that the situation has been stabilising, the evolving situ-ation underscores that the clashes between the two communities in the state were not ordinary communal riots but execution of the agenda to inflict maximum casualty on the civilian popu-lation, create fear psychosis and ultimately grab the land and property of the fleeing community.

In fact reports about Kuki militants occupying abandoned houses of the Meetei community in the fringes and flattening remnants of the latter's ancestral property in and around Churachandpur town bring to the fore eventual implementation of the doctrine of expanding the territory of the Kuki community and diluting the economic influence of the Meetei community.